Abstract
BACKGROUND: Midwives’ job satisfaction is essential to ensuring high quality obstetric care and promoting the well-being of both women and healthcare professionals. However, the medicalised model of childbirth and role conflicts within multidisciplinary teams reduce job satisfaction and increase burnout, leading to high rates of staff turnover. There is therefore a need to develop a comprehensive tool to assess the job satisfaction of midwives working in birthing rooms. Thus, the aim of this study is to develop and validate the following scale: Satisfacción Laboral en Paritorio para Matronas (SLP-M) [Job Satisfaction of Midwives in the Birthing Room]. METHODS: A two-phase instrumental study was conducted. Firstly, to develop the new instrument a systematic review with meta-analysis and a phenomenological qualitative study were carried out. An expert content validation and the content validity index were conducted. For the validation, psychometric properties of the scale were analysed: item performance, reliability, evidence of validity and its internal structure. Non-probabilistic sampling was used with a minimum of 10 participants per item. They were midwives involved in childbirth areas and were recruited via online. RESULTS: A total of 476 complete responses were recorded, with the scale achieving an overall McDonald’s omega of 0,937. Following confirmatory factor analysis, two items with factor loadings below 0.30 were eliminated and the five-dimension model was selected as a good fit, among which are: professional skills in supporting the childbirth process; functional multidisciplinary team; intraprofessional relationships and cooperation; satisfaction with antenatal education and working conditions/determinants of job satisfaction. CONCLUSION: The SLP-M consists of 37 items with good internal consistency, grouped into five dimensions. This approach is designed to ensure the continued viability of the midwifery profession and the quality of care provided. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-025-03934-9.