Quality of Recovery After Unplanned and Planned Cesarean Deliveries - an Application of ObsQoR-10

In Canada, 29.1% of annual births are via cesarean deliveries (CD). The literature shows that almost 24% of CDs are unplanned. Existing evidence suggests that unplanned cesarean delivery, compared to elective cesarean, may be associated with poor maternal recovery, longer postpartum hospital stays and more opioid requirements after surgery. Since the establishment of the Enhanced Recovery After Cesarean protocols, specific care pathways have been implemented with the aim of optimizing recovery after CD and to reduce the costs to the health care system. However, the majority of unplanned cesarean receive the same postoperative anesthetic, obstetric and nursing care as the elective CDs.

Looking at the actual information about maternal recovery after unplanned CD, the investigators found that there is a paucity of literature examining this topic utilizing validated, patient-oriented quality of recovery tools. Recently, Obstetric Quality of Recovery-10 scoring tool (ObsQoR-10), a new patient-focused outcome instrument for postpartum recovery, it has been validated for all types of deliveries, in the inpatient setting. ObsQoR-10 tool aims to measure quantitatively functional recovery at 24 hours postpartum. It includes 10 questions on a 0 to 10 scale, aimed at pain management, the adverse effects of narcotics and the perception of recovery by the patient.

The aim of this study is to determine the quality of recovery from unplanned cesarean deliveries compared to planned ones using a validated tool for recovery after cesarean delivery (ObsQoR-10 tool).

The investigators hypothesize that quality of recovery as measured by the Obs-QoR10 for unplanned cesarean deliveries will be lower than the planned CDs.