Provider Trust: A Useful Concept in Maternal Care

The maternal patient-provider relationship is important in birth experiences. However, no measures of obstetric patient-provider relationship quality exist, perhaps partially explaining why the concept has not been systematically studied in pre- and perinatal psychology and related fields. As a first step in this line of inquiry, we examined a care provider trust measure completed by 70 obstetric clinic patients along with state anxiety, fear of childbirth, and postpartum satisfaction measures. The trust measure performed similarly with our sample as in the original validation. Trust scores were similar across provider type (midwife vs. physician) and demographic variables. Correlations between trust, anxiety, and childbirth fear were low to moderate. The provider trust measure shows promise for advancing understanding of maternal and provider influences on the care relationship and outcomes.