Peer-reviewed article
Parents´ satisfaction with maternity clinic services in rural and urban areas in Finland: a population-based cross-sectional survey.
Rinne J, Kinnunen TI, Klemetti R ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This Finnish study surveyed nearly 15,000 parents with infants aged 3-6 months to compare satisfaction with maternity clinic services across urban, semi-urban, and rural areas. Parents in urban areas reported lower overall satisfaction with maternity services compared to those in rural areas. Urban parents were particularly less satisfied with support for preparing for labour and birth, and with general parenting support, though satisfaction with mental health support did not differ significantly by location.
Key points
- Urban parents were significantly less likely to report overall satisfaction with maternity services (OR 0.75) compared to rural parents
- Urban parents reported lower satisfaction with support for preparing for labour and birth (OR 0.62-0.63 depending on parent type)
- Urban parents reported lower satisfaction with support for parenthood (OR 0.66-0.74)
- No significant differences were found between urban and rural areas for satisfaction with depression support, personal coping support, or support for fear of childbirth
- Study included 8,977 parents who gave birth and 5,843 other parents with response rates of 50% and 36% respectively
Limitations
The study does not explore the reasons behind the observed satisfaction differences between urban and rural areas. The response rate of 36-50% raises questions about whether respondents differ systematically from non-respondents, and the cross-sectional design cannot establish causation or determine whether satisfaction differences reflect actual service quality differences or different expectations.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Satisfaction with maternity clinic services has been studied both internationally and nationally including participants from urban and rural areas. However, studies comparing urban and rural parents´ experiences have rarely been conducted. This study compared overall satisfaction with maternity care services and satisfaction with support for parenthood, depression, personal coping, fear of childbirth, and preparing for labour and birth between parents living in urban, semi-urban and rural areas in Finland. METHOD: The study used data from FinChildren cross-sectional population-based survey that was collected between March 2020 and January 2021 from parents with a 3- to 6-months-old child. The study population consisted of 8,977 parents who gave birth (response rate 50%) and 5,843 other parents (response rate 36%). The data were gathered with questionnaires. The data were analysed with bivariate logistic regression, adjusted for age, country of birth, relationship status, education, and a change of the public health nurse or midwife during pregnancy. RESULTS: Other parents living in urban municipalities were less likely to report being overall satisfied with the services compared to the other parents living in rural municipalities (odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.75, 0.60–0.94). Parents living in urban municipalities were less likely to report being satisfied with the received support for parenthood (ORs and 95% CIs for parents who gave birth 0.74, 0.55-1.00, other parents 0.66, 0.43–1.01). Parents living in urban municipalities were less likely to be satisfied with the support for preparing themselves for labour and birth (ORs and 95% CIs for parents who gave birth 0.62, 0.51–0.76, other parents 0.63, 0.42–0.95). Differences in satisfaction with support for depression, support for personal coping for everyday life, and support for coping with the fear of childbirth between (both) parents living in rural, semi-urban and urban municipalities were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Overall, results show that parents living in urban municipalities are less likely to report being satisfied with the received support than parents living in semi-urban and rural municipalities. The reasons for these differences should be explored in future studies.