Objectives: To: 1. determine the proportion of parturients attending a Nigerian tertiary care facility who are satisfied with the intrapartum and postpartum care they receive; 2. detemine the reasons for, and factors associated with dissatisfaction and 3. seek parturients' views on certain intrapartum practices e.g shaving of public hair, enema, pain relief etc, which may impact upon their overall satisfaction. Methods: A survey of women who had normal deliveries or caesarean section after a period of labour in the hospital from 30th September 1998 to 30th June 1999 using a structured pre-tested questionnaire. Results: Six hundred and seventy-one parturients were interviewed. Their overall rating of care was as follows: very good (58.9%), good (35.2%), mixed (4), bad (0%), very bad (1.9%). Factors that were satisfying to the parturients who rated the care as good or very good (94.1% of the parturients) were: easy availability, competence and caring attitude of labour ward personnel; shaving of public hair on admission, use of intravenous drip without oxytocin and baby care. Despite their overall favourable rating, the following were dissatisfing to the majority of this group: enema on admission, poor pain relief, oxytocic use in labour, the infrequent or non-attendance to the labour ward by consultants, the attendants not seeking their views when making decisions about them, restriction to bed during labour, high cost of care and the restriction of visitors to the wards. For the minority of patients (5.9%) who rated the care as mixed, bad or very bad, the following were dissatisfiers: poor attitude of staff, bad toilet facilities, and intermittent shortage of working materials such as water, linen and oxygen. Conclusions: Although the majority of the parturients in the hospital studied were satisfied with their intrapartum and postpartum care, they identified several deficiency area with important medico-legal implications.
