Colin R. Martin

Aim: To identify perinatal factors associated with early maternal‐newborn skin‐to‐skin contact after birth and examine associations between contact duration, birth satisfaction and postpartum mental wellbeing. Design: A retrospective cross‐sectional survey design was used. Methods: An anonymous online survey included 985 women in the Czech Republic, recruited by non‐probability convenience sampling. Measures assessed perinatal characteristics, birth satisfaction, depressive symptoms and childbirth‐related posttraumatic stress symptoms. Chi‐square and Kruskal–Wallis tests included effect sizes and multiplicity‐adjusted post hoc comparisons. Multivariable linear and logistic models adjusted for maternal, pregnancy, birth and newborn factors. Results: Skin‐to‐skin contact duration was associated with parity, pregnancy course, mode and timing of birth, newborn health and time since birth. Women reporting no contact had the lowest birth satisfaction and highest mental‐health screening scores. Adjusted odds of positive screening for both outcomes (depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms) were lower for > 30–120 and > 120 min of contact, but not ≤ 30 min, compared with no contact. All contact‐duration groups had higher adjusted birth satisfaction, with the largest difference for > 120 min. Conclusion: Early skin‐to‐skin contact was associated with higher birth satisfaction and more favourable maternal mental‐health screening outcomes. The design and sampling do not permit causal inference. Implications for the Profession: Clinical practice guidelines for midwives, obstetric and neonatal nurses should focus not only on initiating skin‐to‐skin contact but also on sustaining its duration and safely overcoming barriers during complicated births. Impact: By highlighting how the duration of early uninterrupted skin‐to‐skin contact is associated with long‐term maternal mental well‐being, this study contributes valuable insights to maternal and child healthcare and underscores the psychological relevance of early mother‐infant contact. Reporting Method: This study adhered to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines. Patient or Public Contribution: There was no patient or public involvement; postpartum women participated as consenting survey respondents.

Background: Many instruments have been developed to screen for postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These measures are often lengthy, an undesirable quality when a brief screen is required as an element of a larger screening and assessment battery. The Primary Care PTSD screen for DSM 5 (PC-PTSD-5) is a generic PTSD measure that is brief and easy to complete and comprising just five items. The current study sought to adapt the PC-PTSD-5 for the Czech postpartum PTSD screening context and describe psychometric properties. Methods: A cross-sectional design. Distributional characteristics, confirmatory factor analysis, convergent and divergent characteristics of a translated and adapted version of the PC-PTSD-5 were examined in a large sample (N = 985) of postpartum women in the Czech Republic. Results: The adapted version of the PC-PTSD-5 demonstrated generally acceptable or good psychometric properties across the range of indices examined. The adapted PC-PTSD-5 demonstrated a two-factor structure in this population: “Internal processing” (Question 1, 2, 5) and “Autonomic dysregulation” (Question 3, 4). Conclusion: The adapted PC-PTSD-5 would appear to be suitable for screening for postpartum PTSD in the Czech context. Further research is required to understand any additional utility of the two sub-scales (from the factor model) and the most appropriate cut-off values.

Given the absence of a validated Polish method for assessing childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD) according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, we aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the City Birth Trauma Scale (City BiTS-PL) and investigate its latent factor structure and the links with sensory processing sensitivity and birth satisfaction. In a cross-sectional descriptive study, a sample of 296 mothers completed an online survey, which included the City BiTS-PL, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised, the Highly Sensitive Person Scale, and the questions about the sociodemographic and pregnancy/birth-related characteristics. The City BiTS-PL was found to have generally good measurement properties. In confirmatory factor analysis, the two-factor solution achieved the best fit out of the three tested models. The internal consistency was satisfactory for the subscales and the whole scale (Cronbach's α = .61-.91). Convergent validity with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised, and Highly Sensitive Person Scale and divergent validity testing indicated robust validity. The prevalence of CB-PTSD in our sample was 6.1%. The City BiTS is a reliable and valid measure, but difficulties were observed during the analysis in fitting the scale to the models, especially in the context of fitting a four-factor model based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders diagnostic criteria. Therefore, the tool should be considered as a screening, not a clinical, method. Sensory processing sensitivity is positively related to CB-PTSD, shedding light on the importance of temperamental sensitivity to the environment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Maternal birth experience is being increasingly recognised as a key clinical outcome parameter. The Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R) is a short self-report measure designed to assess birth experience. The current investigation sought to trans-late the BSS-R into Polish and validate this version of the BSS-R (PL-BSS-R).Participants and procedure: The BSS-R was translated into Polish by an expert panel using forward and backward translation. A complex within-subjects design with an embedded between-subjects component was used to determine the key psychometric characteristics of the PL-BSS-R. Two hundred ninety-four Polish-speaking women in Poland completed the follow-up component of the study where the PL-BSS-R was administered. The PL-BSS-R measurement properties were examined using confirmatory factor analysis, divergent, convergent validity analysis, internal consistency appraisal and investigation of known-groups discriminant characteristics.Results: The PL-BSS-R was found to have generally very good measurement properties and to be equivalent to the original English-language version across key validity indices. The PL-BBS-R was found to be significantly correlated with neonatal physical health immediately postpartum and differed across delivery modes.Conclusions: The PL-BSS-R is a psychometrically robust measure of birth experience appropriate for clinical and research use within Po-land. Important associations were noted between subjective maternal birth experience and objective measures of neonatal physical health, indicating a critically important future research direction.

Background: Maternal outcomes are closely associated with birth satisfaction, and the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R), a concise, multidimensional self-report measure, has undergone translation and validation internationally. However, research on birth satisfaction in Saudi Arabia is scarce. The absence of valid Arabic -language tools for the Saudi population may impede critical research on this topic, necessitating the translation and use of psychometrically sound instruments for measuring birth satisfaction in Saudi women. Objective: This study aimed to translate and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Saudi Arabian version of the BSS-R (SA-BSS-R). Methods: A total of 218 Saudi women participated in the study, and psychometric analysis of the translated SA-BSS-R involved confirmatory factor analysis, divergent validity analysis, and known-group discriminant validity assessment within a cross-sectional study design. Results: The three-factor BSS-R measurement model displayed poor fit, and internal consistency fell below the threshold value. Additionally, it was observed that women undergoing an episiotomy had significantly lower overall SA-BSS-R scores. Conclusion: The SA-BSS-R manifested atypical measurement properties in this population. Despite insightful observations related to episiotomy, the identified measurement shortcomings highlight the need for a more robust and culturally sensitive translation to enhance measurement characteristics.

Childbirth satisfaction may positively affect maternal intention to have a future pregnancy and preference to have a cesarean. We translate the UK-Birth-Satisfaction-Scale-Revised (UK-BSS-R) into Persian and validate an Iranian-BSS-R for future use in this population. In total, 784 mothers who were hospitalized in postpartum wards completed the Persian version of the BSS-R. The confirmatory factor analysis on 10-items scale confirmed the conventional three-factor structure. The Cronbach’s alpha of the Iranian-BSS-R subscales and the total score were within the range of 0.53–0.76. Our findings provide further evidence that the BSS-R is an internationally reliable and valid instrument to measure birth satisfaction.

Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised Indicator (BSS-RI) is a short selfreport instrument designed to measure satisfaction of the childbearing women’s experiences of labour and its outcomes. The aim of ...