MATERNAL SATISFACTION WITH THE EPIDURAL ANALGESIA FOR LABOR AND WITH THE INFORMATION RECEIVED ABOUT IT
AUTHORS: A. Martín, J. Yagüe, E. Gredilla, E. Alonso, J. Díez, F. Gilsanz.
BACKGROUND GOAL OF STUDY
"Patient satisfaction" is a multidimensional concept that includes the doctor-patient communication, the attitude of the professional, their technical competence or the affective aspect. Reaching patient expectations was essential for good satisfaction.
The objective of our study was to determine the maternal satisfaction with the epidural analgesia for labor, and to assess if the information received about epidural in the hospital influenced the satisfaction.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Observational, descriptive study done with a survey, following a validated model (SERVQHOS), in a Spanish tertiary hospital. During a month, 135 questionnaires were answered, 68 patients who had come in the third quarter to the informative talks about epidural analgesia given by the Anesthesia Service, and 67 patients did not.
Chi-square tests and Fisher's exact test were used. The value of p <0.05 was considered significant.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Overall satisfaction was very high in our simple. 95.5% of patients would recommend the technique in our center and 97% would request it in another pregnancy.100% of the women who came to receive the information to the hospital would recommend the talk, and these were valued by 82.3% with a grade equal to or greater than 8(0-10). At 83.1% of those who did not go to the hospital would have liked to attend. However, there weren’t differences in overall satisfaction (91.2% vs 92.5%), neither at the time of recommending (97% vs 94%), or re-using epidural analgesia (97% in both groups), among the patients who attended the informative talks and those who did not.
The variables that most affected the overall satisfaction were related to the outcome of epidural analgesia, so that patients in whom pain relief was better than expected showed greater satisfaction compared to those who did not meet their expectations and assessed the pain control worse than expected:
- Pain control: 99% satisfaction vs 64% respectively, p<0.001.
- The time that passed since the epidural was administered until the pain was relieved: 99% vs 71.4%, p<0.001.
CONCLUSIONS
The level of overall satisfaction of our patients with the epidural analgesia process was very high, corroborated by the high percentage of women who would recommend the technique in our hospital and who would use it again.
Although we consider that information on epidural analgesia did not influence the overall satisfaction. 
The poor control of pain after the establishment of epidural analgesia was decisive in the low satisfaction.


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