Quality of Recovery Following Childbirth: A Prospective, Multicenter Cohort Study

Abstract

(Anaesthesia. 2023;78(9):1071–1080) The peripartum period, encompassing childbirth and its aftermath, involves the administration of anesthesia or analgesia to ∼65% of patients, a substantial portion necessitated by urgent surgical interventions. The imperative to enhance surgical recovery and ensure patient satisfaction postpartum is crucial for delivering high-quality clinical care, as it has the potential to positively influence maternal physical and psychological well-being. Despite the escalating focus on postpartum-related research, prior studies on recovery have been predominantly confined to single-center endeavors with limited sample sizes, deploying disparate outcome measures or unvalidated metrics, primarily evaluating inpatient recovery with insufficient scrutiny of outpatient recovery.