Predictive factors of women’s subjective perception of childbirth experience: a systematic review of the literature

Background: Up to 33% of women report a negative or traumatic childbirth experience. Given this high prevalence and its consistent association with adverse postpartum and child outcomes, it is essential to identify predictive factors and to improve the management of the childbirth experience.Objective: This systematic review explores and identifies risk and protective factors for women’s subjective childbirth experience and birth satisfaction by reviewing original research.Methods: A systematic search was performed for childbirth experience literature on three online databases. Reviewed papers focused on women’s subjective childbirth experience and its predictive factors. The articles were assessed with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT).Results: Risk and protective factors are notably different depending on the study design, the country, or the method employed. The main risk factors are obstetric, such as emergency caesarean and highly perceived labour pain, and women’s dissatisfaction with social support. The main protective factors are: obstetric, including highly perceived control during labour or satisfaction regarding partner’s support. However, overall results are inconclusive for methodological or conceptual reasons.Conclusions: Several risk factors can be identified through pregnancy or childbirth. This underlines the importance of the quality of maternal interpersonal and professional relationships, especially with first-line perinatal health-care professionals, such as midwives.