Deaf women's satisfaction with prenatal care

Satisfaction with communication is a major component of overall satisfaction with care. For deaf clients, effective communication with the physician is often difficult. This may result in less satisfactory communication and, in turn, less satisfaction with medical care. A previous pilot study with deaf women regarding childbirth experiences revealed that perceived quality of communication and perceived physician concern were strong predictors of satisfaction. Satisfaction was not affected whether or not an interpreter was used when the client would have preferred one. To clarify this apparent contradiction and explore other predictors of satisfaction, as well as to investigate the care that deaf women receive, this present study investigated the relationship between deaf women's overall satisfaction with prenatal care and several variables that have been correlated with satisfaction in the literature with hearing women. Information on health outcomes was collected. Additionally, this study explored the differences between deaf and hearing women's perceptions and outcomes of care. Participants were 23 deaf and 32 hearing women who had a live birth within the past 3 years. Women were surveyed about their satisfaction based on Omar and Schiffman's satisfaction questionnaire (1995). Correlations revealed strong positive relationships between self reports of overall satisfaction with perceived quality of communication, and perceived physician concern. Satisfaction with communication and physician concern significantly accounted for variance of overall satisfaction, but were not additive in accounting for variance. Interpreter expectations being met and exceeded significantly predicted overall satisfaction and accounted for 18% of the total variance. As expectations were met and exceeded, overall satisfaction increased. Although not significant, there was a trend for deaf women reporting more social support to be more satisfied. Deaf women were less satisfied with overall prenatal care and with quality of communication than hearing women. Deaf women expected communication to be difficult more often than hearing women. Outcome measures revealed that deaf and hearing women reported getting similar health care. Deaf women did report having fewer appointments and getting less information from their doctor than did hearing women. Implications for future research are discussed.