Maternal satisfaction with spinal anesthesia for Caesarean delivery at Kenyatta national hospital

Abstract

Background: The fulfillment of expectations, abolition of pain and communication are the most important determinants of the postpartum evaluation of childbirth after caesarean delivery. This study aimed to determine the level of maternal satisfaction with pain control, the care received, and the communication and explanations given for patients undergoing spinal synesthesia for caesarean delivery. Methodology: The study was designed as a cross-sectional survey. It was carried out in the Kenyatta National Hospital postnatal wards. Data was captured electronically using SPSS and analysis done using SPSS version 17. Univariate analysis was used to extract simple frequencies and the data was presented graphically. A five-point likert scale was used to measure maternal satisfaction and various inferential statistics were used to assess association. Results: A total of 346 post caesarean delivery women were interviewed. The satisfaction with pain control was 89.5%. 92.2% of the women were satisfied with their involvement in decision making while 94.8% were satisfied with the level of communication with their anesthesia providers. 95.1% of the women had their expectations for delivery met. The satisfaction with the choice of spinal anesthesia for caesarean delivery was 80%. The overall satisfaction with childbirth was 95.3%. Conclusion: Neonatal outcome was a strong predictor of satisfaction. Those who experienced a poor neonatal outcome were 6.8 times more likely to be dissatisfied. The cadre of anesthetist, marital status of parturient and number of prior caesarean deliveries had no influence on maternal satisfaction.