SHORT POSTNATAL HOSPITAL STAY - IMPLICATIONS FOR WOMEN AND SERVICE PROVIDERS

Background In a bid to Increase consumer satisfaction, recent governme nt reports have encouraged maternity services providers to offer women more choice about their care. At the same time, there has been consid erable pressure on hospital managers and clinicians to drive down heal th service costs. Women need information about the likely effects of d ifferent service patterns on their wellbeing, and service providers ab out the implications of allowing women choice. Methods This paper repo rts on a descriptive study in six districts in the Yorkshire Region an d focuses on the implications of variation in length of stay. The aim of the study was to describe variation in the care process and to expl ore associations between care process variables, consumer satisfaction and maternal psychological wellbeing. One hundred and twenty randomly selected women in each district delivering in a specified four-week p eriod were asked to complete postal survey questionnaires in the postn atal period. Results There were significant differences between distri cts in terms of the length of postnatal hospital stay for women experi encing normal deliveries. Those women who thought that their postnatal length of stay was too short had significantly higher depression scor es. Conclusions Variation in length of postnatal hospital stay may hav e implications for consumer satisfaction, maternal psychological outco mes and resource use.