A simple tool to measure patient perceptions of operative birth.

Objective: To assess the feasibility and validity of a maternal satisfaction measurement tool, the SaFE study Patient Perception Score (PPS), after operative delivery.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: A large maternity unit in England.

Sample: 150 women who had had an operative birth.

Methods: We recruited women within 24 hours of birth and quantified their satisfaction with two questionnaires: PPS, and the Mackey Childbirth Satisfaction Rating Scale (CSRS; modified).

Main Outcome Measures: Participation rate to determine feasibility; Cronbach's alpha as measure of internal consistency; PPS satisfaction scores for groups of accoucheurs of different seniority to assess construct validity; correlation coefficient of PPS scores with total scores from the CSRS questionnaire to establish criterion validity.

Results: Participation rate approached 85%. We observed high scores for most births except a few outliers. Internal consistency of the PPS was high (Cronbach's alpha=0.83). Total PPS scores correlated strongly with total CSRS scores (Spearman's r=0.64, P<0.001).

Conclusions: The PPS is a simple and valid tool for patient-centred assessments. High scores were observed for most births but there were a small minority of accoucheurs who consistently scored poorly and these data could be used during appraisal and training.