Who's holding the baby?--women's experience of their postnatal care.

This paper examines women's experience of their postnatal care in hospital and at home. It found that over a third of women surveyed had problems caring for themselves and the baby. Breastfeeding mothers were more likely to have problems than bottle-feeding mothers. There was no relationship between having such problems and parity. Women were particularly dissatisfied with postnatal services at home, 45% describing them as inadequate. Satisfaction with services was significantly associated with having sufficient advice from health professionals in hospital and at home. In view of the findings of this paper, it is clear that a strategy is required to identify those most in need of postnatal care and target services accordingly.