Patient satisfaction is an important outcome in the evaluation and development of healthcare services. Studies have identified tools that successfully measure women's childbirth experiences, and have shown that multidimensional measures of women's satisfaction in labor and delivery provides a richer and diverse perspective on women's experiences of intrapartum care. Childbirth experience can have significant effects, both positive and negative, on women's immediate and long term health outcomes. Patients with negative experiences surrounding childbirth have been shown to have significant fear surrounding the labor and delivery experience that negatively impact subsequent deliveries. Often fear is worsened by a lack of knowledge of what to expect during labor. Women enrolled in this study will simulate some of the potentially stressful experiences that commonly occur during labor to determine if doing so decreases a woman's fear and anxiety about labor and delivery. Women in Centering Pregnancy groups will be approached and assigned to either the intervention or control arm by Centering Pregnancy group. Those in the intervention arm will participate in simulations in the following areas: 1) In-Utero Resuscitation Simulation: the process that may occur if a baby has a significant drop in heart rate during labor, 2) Cesarean Section Simulation: the process of moving from the labor bed to the transport stretcher and on to the operating room in the event that a laboring woman needs a cesarean delivery, 3) Pushing Simulation: the pushing process after a laboring woman becomes completely dilated. Those in the control arm will not receive this education. All patient will complete a modified Childbirth Experience Questionnaire the day after delivery. Responses will be compared between the woman that participated in the simulations to women who did not participate in simulations.
Patient satisfaction is an important outcome in the evaluation and development of healthcare services. Studies have identified tools that successfully measure women's childbirth experiences, and have shown that multidimensional measures of women's satisfaction in labor and delivery provides a richer and diverse perspective on women's experiences of intrapartum care. Childbirth experience can have significant effects, both positive and negative, on women's immediate and long term health outcomes. Patients with negative experiences surrounding childbirth have been shown to have significant fear surrounding the labor and delivery experience that negatively impact subsequent deliveries. Often fear is worsened by a lack of knowledge of what to expect during labor. Women enrolled in this study will simulate some of the potentially stressful experiences that commonly occur during labor to determine if doing so decreases a woman's fear and anxiety about labor and delivery.