About us Mō mātou

About the Ministry of Health and the New Zealand health system. 

Regulation & legislation Ngā here me ngā ture

Health providers and products we regulate, and laws we administer.

Strategies & initiatives He rautaki, he tūmahi hou

How we’re working to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders.

Māori health Hauora Māori

Increasing access to health services, achieving equity and improving outcomes for Māori.

Statistics & research He tatauranga, he rangahau

Data and insights from our health surveys, research and monitoring.

The Maternity Consumer Survey aims to assess women’s perceptions of the maternity services they received. The Maternity Consumer Survey 2014 is the fifth national survey of women who had live babies, and the 2015 Survey of Bereaved Women is the second national survey of women who had lost a baby between 20 weeks’ pregnancy and four weeks after birth.

Nearly 4000 women responded to the Maternity Consumer Survey. The survey results were weighted to balance the different response rates between groups, in particular lower response rates from Maori, Pacific and younger mothers.

Women reported high levels of satisfaction with care received during pregnancy, birth and in the postnatal period, with 77 percent of women being very satisfied or satisfied with the overall care they received, similar to previous results of 78 percent in 2011. The highest level of women’s satisfaction was with the care received from Lead Maternity Carers with 90 percent of women very satisfied or satisfied.

Care throughout pregnancy, during birth, at home following birth, and the quality of available information all had satisfaction levels above 80 percent. Statistical analysis identified which areas of maternity care were most closely correlated with overall satisfaction, which helped determine the highest priorities for improvement.

A total of 114 women participated in the 2015 Survey of Bereaved Women. The survey explores women’s experiences and satisfaction with the maternity services they received prior to, during and following the loss of a baby and required participants to explicitly opt in to a telephone or online survey.

Participants reported generally high satisfaction, with 74 percent of respondents satisfied with the overall care they received, an increase on the previous survey result of 67 percent. Eighty-four percent of women felt they received all of the care and support they needed at the time of their baby’s birth/death.

The survey also identified a number of areas were improved information and support could be provided.

The 2014 Maternity Consumer Survey also includes a survey tool and how-to guide for district health boards to enable robust and comparable surveying of their birthing population.

The Maternity Consumer Survey 2014 was carried out by Research NZ. The 2015 Survey of Bereaved Women was carried out by Research NZ with the support of Sands NZ, who provided assistance with question design and briefing of interviewers.

Maternity Consumer Survey

Survey of Bereaved Women

DHB Survey Tool

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