Conclusion: What Mothers Say: The Maternity Experiences Survey

Executive Summary - Conclusion

The MES provides a unique opportunity for women’s perspectives on their maternity experiences to complement traditional sources of data for perinatal health surveillance. By better informing policies, programs and practices, the findings of the MES will contribute to improved maternity care and maternal and infant health in Canada. The MES indicates that, in general, most Canadian women have high levels of satisfaction with the maternity care they received and rated their overall maternity experience as positive. Nonetheless, women’s reports also underscore important issues. Some of these issues relate to maternity care interventions and practices whose routine use is not supported by current evidence, while others involve significant regional and socio-demographic disparities. Further collaborative investigation is warranted to validate and explore these findings. In addition, efforts are needed to fill gaps in information, such as the maternity experiences of First Nations women living on reserve as well as other women who were not included in the survey. The MES findings can also be explored in light of existing maternity hospitals’ policies and practices, as reported in the Canadian Hospital Maternity Policies and Practices Survey 2007,¹⁹ and in conjunction with the Canadian Perinatal Health Report, 2008 Edition.²⁰