Birth Satisfaction Domains and Maternal Healthcare Service Utilization

Limited research examines how birth satisfaction influences Nigerian women’s preferences for traditional or modern maternal healthcare services amid persistently high maternal. This facility-based cross-sectional re-analysis examined associations between recorded birth-experience domains and the type of maternal healthcare service used by 208 women recruited in Nigeria. The archived dataset classified service use as modern healthcare (n = 115; 55.3%) or traditional/faith-based care (n = 93; 44.7%). Three domains derived from an adapted Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests; education and residence were assessed using chi-square tests, and adjusted associations were estimated by binary logistic regression. Quality-of-care (median 16 versus 16; p = .263) and personal-attributes scores (5 versus 6; p = .203) did not show statistically significant group differences. The recorded labour-stress-domain score was higher among modern-care users (13 versus 12; p = .004); however, its meaning cannot be established because the adapted item-level scoring key was unavailable. Education was associated with service type (χ²[4] = 25.58; p < .001), as was residence (Yates-corrected χ²[1] = 4.49; p = .034). Higher education (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.97 per level, 95% CI 1.54–2.52) and reported income (AOR = 1.54 per doubling, 95% CI 1.14–2.09) were associated with modern-care use. These findings indicate socioeconomic gradients in observed service use, but the design does not establish temporality, causality or whether birth-experience scores related to a previous encounter. The specific recruitment locations and dates require confirmation from field records.