Findings from the Italian Babies Born Better Survey.

BACKGROUND: The most recent WHO recommendations "Intrapartum care for a positive childbirth experience" highlight the need to identify women-centered interventions and outcomes for intrapartum care, and to include service users' experiences and qualitative research into the assessment of maternity care. Babies Born Better (B3) is a trans-European survey designed to capture service user views and experiences of maternity care provision. Italian service users contributed to the survey. METHODS: The B3 Survey is an anonymous, mixed-method online survey, translated into 22 languages. We separated out the Italian responses and analyzed them using computer-assisted qualitative software (MAXQDA) and SPSS and STATA for quantitative data analysis. Simple descriptives were used for the numeric data, and content analysis for the qualitative responses. Geomapping was based on the coded qualitative data and postcodes (using Tableau Public). RESULTS: There were 1000 respondents from every region of Italy, using a range of places of birth (hospital, birth center, home) and experiencing care with both midwives and obstetricians. Most identified positive experiences of care, as well as some practices they would like to change. Both positive and critical comments included provision of care based on the type of providers, clinical procedures, the birth environment, and breastfeeding support. There were clear differences in the geomapped data across Italian regions. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers highly value respectful, skilled and loving care that gives them a strong sense of personal achievement and confidence, and birth environments that support this. There was distinct variation in the percentage of positive comments made across Italian regions.

Sociodemographic characteristics of women participating to the LOVE-THEM (Listening to Obstetric Violence Experiences THrough Enunciations and Measurement) investigation in Italy.

Data here reported are sample characteristics of the first nation-wide community based survey on 'obstetric violence' (OV) conducted in a high-income country (Italy). The initiative is the extension of the social media campaign "#Bastatacere: mothers have voice" that in 2016 put under national spotlight the hidden phenomenon of abuse and disrespect in childbirth in hospital facilities, advocating for a respectful maternity care. The questionnaire LOVE-THEM was firstly developed in an open format and then revised according to WHO definition of disrespect and abuse in childbirth, within human rights based approach. The survey was conducted through on line interviews (CAWI method, quota sampling) with 424 respondents representing a significant national sample of mothers with children aged 0-14 years. Here we report summary tables describing the sample distribution according to the socio-demographic characteristics (instruction, employment status, social and economic class), including the number and the age of children. The responding sample is proportionally appropriate and correctly representative of about 5 millions of childbearing women in Italy.