Healthcare worker and nonhealthcare worker mothers' experiences of vaginal examination in labour and their views on birth satisfaction

Objective: Birth satisfaction is an extremely important issue for both the woman's own health, the health of the baby, and positive family relationships. This study was conducted to reveal the opinions of healthcare and nonhealthcare worker mothers about vaginal examination during labor and their birth satisfaction. Materials and Methods: The sample of this cross-sectional and comparative study consisted of 408 mothers who gave vaginal birth between the ages of 18-45. Demographic Information Form, Birth Satisfaction Scale-Short Form, and Women's Vaginal Examination Experiences at Birth Scale were used to collect data. Independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA and one-way MANOVA were used to analyze the data. Results: Birth satisfaction and vaginal examination experience were found to be associated with education level, occupation, number of pregnancies, number of live births, antenatal education, number of vaginal examinations in the last delivery, the person who performed the vaginal examination, the person who delivered the baby and the interventions performed during delivery (amniotomy, artificial labour, fundal pressure, intervention delivery) (p