Clients' Perception Toward Quality of Postnatal Care in the Gaza Strip, Palestine: A Direction For Health Policy Change

Introduction: most maternal and neonatal deaths occur during the postnatal period.therefore, the quality of care provided by healthcare professionals at this critical time iscrucial in reducing complications, morbidity, and mortality rates.objective: the present study aimed to determine the perceptions of palestinian womenliving in the gaza strip considering the quality of care they received in the early postpartumperiod.materials and methods: an analytical crosssectional study was conducted using a selfadministered questionnaire developed by the researchers. a total of 200 pregnant womenwere selected by convenience sampling method from 4 governmental hospitals in thegaza strip, palestine providing postnatal care. descriptive statistics, including frequency,mean, and standard deviations, were used to describe the variables. analysis of variance(anova) and independent samples ttest was used to compare the collected mean scores.results: the study participants rated the postnatal services they received as highqualitycare. high mean scores were achieved for all study domains. the ldquo;quality of postnatal careprovided by midwives rdquo; received the highest mean ±sd score of 4.16 ±0.60, followed by thedomain ldquo;quality of postnatal baby care rdquo; with a mean ±sd score of 3.89 ±0.85. the other twodomains of ldquo;quality of provided health education rdquo; and ldquo;quality of provided communicationand psychological support rdquo; received the lowest mean scores of 3.81 with standard deviationsof 0.90 and 0.80, respectively. patientperceived postnatal care quality was not affected bymany variables, such as age, parity, and gravidity. it was only affected by the subjects rsquo; level ofeducation (p=0.001) and the place of delivery (p=0.017).conclusion: the obtained results posed a challenge for healthcare policymakers andprofessionals working in maternity departments. a new policy and leadership directionsare required in this critical and vulnerable clinical area. to improve the quality of postnatalcare, health policymakers must collaborate with midwifery staff. it is important to identifyand eliminate any barriers that impede the provision of better care. this will be reflected byreducing maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality rates and reducing the number ofhospitalization days.