Abstract
BackgroundThe Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) was originally designed to study women’s perceptions of labour and birth. The main objective of our study was to adapt the CEQ to the Spanish context and determine its psychometric properties. This would provide an opportunity to evaluate women’s experiences in order to improve evidence in the Spanish context as recommended by national guidelines.MethodsThe CEQ was translated into Spanish using a standard forward and back translation method (CEQ-E). A convenience sample of 364 women was recruited from 3 Spanish hospitals; all participants were able to read and write in Spanish. Mothers with high risk pregnancies or preterm deliveries were excluded from the study. A self-administered questionnaire on sociodemographic variables was completed by participants before discharge. Data on childbirth variables were obtained from maternity records. Between 1 and 3 months postpartum a postal CEQ-E questionnaire was sent.The CEQ-E structure was examined by a confirmatory factor analysis of polychoric correlations using a diagonally weighted least squares estimator. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. Construct validity was conducted by testing differences in CEQ-E scores between known-groups (to differ on key variables).Results226 (62.1%) of the recruited participants completed the postal questionnaire. The CEQ-E factor structure was similar to the original one. The Spanish version showed fit statistics in line with standard recommendations: CFI = 0.97; NNFI = 0.97; RMSEA = 0.066; SRMS = 0.077. The internal consistency reliability of the CEQ-E was good for the overall scale (0.88) and for all subscales (0.80, 0.90, 0.76, 0.68 for “own capacity”, “professional support”, “perceived safety” and “participation”, respectively) and similar to the original version. Women with a labour duration ≤ 12 h, women with a labour not induced, women with a normal birth and multiparous women showed higher overall CEQ-E scores and “perceived safety” subscale scores. Women with a labour duration ≤ 12 h and those with previous experience of labour obtained higher scores for the “own capacity” and “participation” subscales.ConclusionsThe results of this study indicate that the CEQ-E can be considered a valid and reliable measure of women’s perceptions of labour and birth in Spain.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12884-016-1100-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) was originally designed to study women’s perceptions of labour and birth
Description of sample and test information Of the 364 eligible women that met the inclusion criteria, 226 (62.1%) completed and returned the Childbirth experience questionnaire Spanish version (CEQ-E) questionnaire between 1 and 3 months postpartum
Semantic equivalence We did not find any semantic differences, so there were no real differences in meaning, but we did find some syntactic or stylistic changes in the Spanish version because conventions are different or because of the context
Summary
The Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) was originally designed to study women’s perceptions of labour and birth. The main objective of our study was to adapt the CEQ to the Spanish context and determine its psychometric properties This would provide an opportunity to evaluate women’s experiences in order to improve evidence in the Spanish context as recommended by national guidelines. It has been argued that patient satisfaction and experience of care is an important indicator of quality [9, 13, 14] It can successfully be used as a predictor of outcomes. A negative childbirth experience has been linked to a lower rates of breastfeeding, increase disorders of mother to infant bonding, increased post-partum depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome [17, 18] Such disorders have been linked to influence the decision, expectations for subsequent pregnancies and the choice of delivery [19, 20]. More research is needed in this area in order to provide reliable findings on how an intervention may enhance women’s experience of labour and birth [21,22,23]
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