Validation and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the questionnaire for assessing the childbirth experience (QACE)

Objective: When evaluating childbirth experience, some of the factors considered by women include their previous births experience, pain management during birth, and companion and healthcare professional support received. The objective of this paper is to validate the Questionnaire for Assessing the Childbirth Experience (QACE) into the Spanish population by assessing its psychometric properties. Methods: Due to the differences between the Spanish and English languages, a careful translation process was the first step to making the QACE useable to Spanish speaking cohorts, once thoroughly translated their conceptual equivalence was evaluated by a group of experts and tested later via interviews with postpartum women for comprehensibility evaluation. Secondly, the validation process was obtained throughout the factorial analysis, internal consistency, test–retest evaluation and convergent and discriminant validity. Results: A total of 268 postpartum women participated in the validity study. The KMO (0.84) and Bartlett test (p < 0.001) confirmed the adequacy of factor analysis and the Screen plot showed four factors with the predictive power of 52.63%, which supported total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an adequate/good fitness for the new model (χ²/df = 1.47, GFI = 0.979, RMSEA = 0.052, CFI = 0.889, NFI = 0.727, NNFI = 0.873, and SRMR = 0.155). Internal consistency was confirmed with McDonal's Omega level of 0.818. Test-retest evaluation supported test stability (r = 0.79, p < 0.01). Convergent and discriminant validity were obtained with 0.803 and 0.475 Pearson coefficients respectively. Conclusions: The Spanish version of QACE is a relevant tool for measuring childbirth experience into the Spanish context with acceptable validity and stability.