Determinants of women's dissatisfaction with anaesthesia care in labour and delivery

Patient-centred care and factors associated with patient satisfaction with anaesthesia have been widely studied. However, the most important considerations in the setting of obstetric anaesthesia are uncertain. Identification of, and addressing, factors that contribute to patient dissatisfaction may improve quality of care. We sought to identify factors associated with < 100% satisfaction with obstetric anaesthesia care. At total of 4297 women treated by anaesthetists provided satisfaction data 24 h after vaginal and 48 h after caesarean delivery. As 78% of women were 100% satisfied, we studied factors associated with the dichotomous variable, 100% satisfied vs. < 100% satisfied. We evaluated patient characteristics and peripartum factors using multivariable sequential logistic regression. The following factors were strongly associated with maternal dissatisfaction after vaginal delivery: pain intensity during the first stage of labour; pain intensity during the second stage of labour; postpartum pain intensity; delay > 15 min in providing epidural analgesia and postpartum headache (all p < 0.0001). Pruritus (p = 0.005) also contributed to dissatisfaction after vaginal delivery, whereas non-Hispanic ethnicity was negatively associated with dissatisfaction (p = 0.01). After caesarean delivery, the intensity of postpartum pain (p < 0.0001), headache (p = 0.001) and pruritus (p = 0.001) were linked to dissatisfaction. Hispanic ethnicity also had a negative relationship with dissatisfaction after caesarean delivery (p = 0.005). Thus, inadequate or delayed analgesia and treatment-related side-effects are associated with maternal dissatisfaction with obstetric anaesthesia care. Development of protocols to facilitate identification of ineffective analgesia and provide an appropriate balance between efficacy and side-effects, are important goals to optimise maternal satisfaction.