Single-room maternity care: Systematic review and narrative synthesis

Abstract

Aim: To describe the single-room maternity care model and evaluate its influence on patient, provider and system outcomes.

Design: Mixed-method systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Methods: We conducted searches of MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the grey literature from January 1985-August 2018, yielding 151 records. Pairs of reviewers independently applied the inclusion criteria using a standardized screening tool to both titles/abstracts and full texts. Overall, 13 studies were retained.

Results: Most studies of single-room care were from the United States and Canada, and assessed costs, patient satisfaction and/or provider satisfaction. Studies used cross-sectional and/or pre-post comparative, retrospective descriptive and qualitative designs. Methodological quality of quantitative studies was generally weak, and few studies conducted inferential statistics. Maternal satisfaction with the single-room maternity model was positive across the studies; however, healthcare provider satisfaction was mixed.

Keywords: delivery rooms; labor delivery recovery postpartum; literature review; maternal health services; nursing; rooming in; single room maternity care; systematic review.