Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) in the Sri Lankan setting: translation, cultural adaptation and validation into the Sinhala language

Objective: To adapt the CEQ into Sri Lankan Sinhala cultural context and to determine the psychometric properties of CEQ. This would yield an opportunity to evaluate childbirth experience among Lankan population. 

Results: Out of 390, 226 (57.9%) postnatal mothers completed the CEQ after 1 month postpartum. Face validity and content validity were demonstrated with all participants stating that CEQ was easy to understand and complete. For reliability, internal consistency was acceptable for the overall score (0.85) and for all four domains in CEQ (0.65, 0.80, 0.70, 0.83 for “own capacity”, “professional support”, “perceived safety” and “participation”, respectively). A weighted kappa of 0.61–0.80 for all 22 items in CEQ demonstrated a good test–retest reliability. This Sri Lankan version showed fit statistics in line with standard recommendations in exploratory factor analysis. Women with spontaneous onset of labour (except for “professional support” in women with spontaneous onset of labour) and women with a normal birth showed significantly higher CEQ scores. However, oxytocin augmentation could not yield a difference in CEQ scores.