The Relationship between Maternal Satisfaction from Pregnancy and Childbirth Care and Their Intention to Subsequent Pregnancy

Having children is influenced by social, economic, cultural, and personal factors. Mothers' satisfaction from receiving appropriate pregnancy and childbirth care promotes physical and mental health and creates a positive experience of childbirth. It may provide the basis for increasing the intention to childbearing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between satisfaction from pregnancy and childbirth care to have more children.

In this cross-sectional study, 423 eligible women were referred to comprehensive health centers in Bandar Abbas, Iran in 2022 and participated by the available sampling method. The tools of data collection were demographic, satisfaction with pregnancy, and childbirth care questionnaires. The data were analyzed using statistical tests of t-test, chi-square, ANOVA, and Spearman's correlation coefficient.

The intention to childbearing had a positive correlation with the age of the person and her spouse, the age of marriage, the gender of the children, and the place of delivery. Most participants' satisfaction with pregnancy and childbirth care was average. The majority of women who had received good and complete pregnancy and delivery care had the intention to become pregnant again. There was a positive correlation between satisfaction with pregnancy care (r = 0.25) and satisfaction with childbirth care (r = 0.15) intending to have children again.

The results of the present study showed a correlation between the desire to have children again and satisfaction from pregnancy and childbirth care. This finding confirms that if population policies can design and implement programs that increase women's satisfaction with pregnancy and childbirth care, they can be very effective in creating the intention to have children again.