The Birth Satisfaction Scale: Igbo adaptation, validation, and reliability study

OBJECTIVE To investigate the validity and reliability of the Birth Satisfaction Scale – Revised (BSS-R) Igbo version. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was done among 500 women who delivered at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching hospital Abakaliki between 1st March 2019 and 31st August 2019. The BSS-R questionnaire was used for data collection in the postnatal ward. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS version 20. The properties of the scale were tested by conducting reliability and validation analyses. The level of significance is a P-value of <0.05. RESULTS The mean age of the women was 28.8±4.7 years; the majority (230, 46.0%) were between the age group of 30 – 40 years. More than 90% of the study participant had formal education. The majority (460, 92.0%) were multipara and had delivered mostly (326, 65.2%) at Full Term. Three Component loading was identified in the Scale. Examination of the pattern matrix showed three components/themes: support by staff during labour (I felt well supported by staff during my labour and birth (r = 0.875); parturient confidence during labour (I felt out of control during my birth experience (r = 0.714) and distraught during labour (I was not distressed at all during labour (r = 0.821). Communality value (r2) mostly ranged between 0.507 and 0.801. The scale had a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.62. This increased to 0.70 following the removal of “I was not distressed at all during labour” responses from the analysis. CONCLUSION The Igbo version of BSS-R has good internal consistency. It is a valid and reliable scale to be employed in assessing maternal satisfaction among Igbo-speaking women in the study area and Nigeria in general.