Here are some of the best questions for a patient survey about childbirth experience, along with tips on how to craft them well. If you want to build or generate a similar survey in seconds, Specific can help you easily create a fully-customizable survey with AI.
Best open-ended questions for patient survey about childbirth experience
We strongly recommend including open-ended questions in patient childbirth experience surveys. They invite detailed stories that static options would miss, allowing us to dig deep and discover what really matters to patients. Open-ended questions are especially valuable for:
Encouraging detailed responses: Patients can speak freely, giving you richer qualitative feedback.
Uncovering unexpected insights: You’ll learn things even the best-prepared researchers might not anticipate.
Enhancing patient engagement: People want to feel heard, especially after a significant life event like childbirth. [1][2][3]
To see just how effective open-ended questions are, consider that 76% of over 75,000 patients in one study chose to add comments to their surveys when given the chance, demonstrating a genuine desire to share deeper feedback. [4]
Can you describe your overall experience during your childbirth at our facility?
What aspects of the care you received stood out most to you?
Were there any moments you felt especially supported or unsupported by the staff?
How well did hospital staff communicate information to you and your family?
What could we have done differently to make your childbirth experience better?
Were there any unexpected challenges or positive surprises that you experienced?
How did you feel about the cleanliness and comfort of the birthing environment?
Was there anything about your labor or delivery that you wish had gone differently?
How well did we respect your birth plan and preferences?
After returning home, what parts of your experience stayed with you (positive or negative)?
Of course, it’s important to balance these with other question types, as too many open-ends can lead to survey fatigue or a mountain of unstructured data to analyze. [5]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for patient survey about childbirth experience
Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you want to quantify experiences or get a quick pulse on specific issues. Sometimes, patients may prefer clicking a button rather than writing out a thought. These closed-ended questions are ideal for:
Getting quick statistics about satisfaction or pain points
Kickstarting a conversation—sometimes it’s easier to select an option, then elaborate when prompted
Simplifying analysis and benchmarking over time
Question: Overall, how satisfied were you with your childbirth experience at our hospital?
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Question: How would you rate the communication by the medical staff during your stay?
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Other
Question: Did your care team respect your birth plan and preferences?
Yes, completely
Somewhat
No, not really
When to followup with "why?" A good follow-up question can uncover the story behind a simple answer. For example, if a patient selects “Dissatisfied,” a follow-up such as “Could you share more details about what led to your dissatisfaction?” allows deeper understanding and context.
When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always include “Other” when you want to capture unexpected or unique answers. Following up with, “Can you tell us more?” can surface insights you hadn’t considered—patients may raise issues or positive experiences not on your radar.
NPS question: measuring loyalty and recommending your facility
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question asks respondents how likely they are to recommend your hospital or birthing center to others. It’s a proven tool to measure loyalty and detect areas for improvement. For childbirth experience surveys, NPS is especially helpful because:
It benchmarks satisfaction, enabling you to track change over time
It’s a single metric board members and leaders immediately understand
It uncovers stories behind promoters, passives, and detractors by allowing smart follow-up questions
Adding an NPS question is a smart, standardized way to see how your facility compares with others, and Specific can generate an NPS survey tailored for childbirth experiences instantly through this template.
The power of follow-up questions
Specific leverages AI-powered automated follow-up questions, transforming surveys into natural conversations. With smart follow-ups, you clarify ambiguous answers, dig deeper, and remove bias, all while saving time for your research teams and respondents. With automated follow-ups, you no longer need to manually email for clarification or run tedious callbacks.
Patient: “My nurse was great.”
AI follow-up: “In what ways did your nurse make a positive difference for you?”
Patient: “I felt anxious during the procedure.”
AI follow-up: “What happened during the procedure that made you feel anxious?”
How many followups to ask? Usually, 2–3 follow-ups per open question are enough. You want just enough detail for actionable insights, but without burdening the patient. With Specific, you can set a maximum number of follow-ups or let AI skip to the next question when enough context is gathered.
This makes it a conversational survey—it feels like a real chat, not a form, which increases engagement and the quality of feedback.
AI response analysis—AI makes it simple to analyze large amounts of unstructured text, summarizing stories, trends, and even segmenting by themes. Even for open-ended and followup-rich surveys, AI allows you to quickly see what matters most to patients.
We recommend everyone interested in deeper insights to try generating a survey with automatic AI follow-ups—it’s a game-changer for getting real, actionable answers.
How to compose ChatGPT prompts for patient childbirth survey questions
If you want to brainstorm or use GPT tools to generate survey questions for childbirth experience, prompts matter. Here are a few effective ways to get high-quality results:
To get a basic list, start with:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for patient survey about childbirth experience.
If you want better results, give the AI more context—explain your role, goal, and what you want to learn:
I am a hospital administrator aiming to understand the patient experience during childbirth at our facility. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that could help us improve care quality, communication, and support for mothers during and after delivery.
To organize your questions and themes, use:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
From there, review the AI’s proposed categories, pick those most relevant, and ask:
Generate 10 questions for the categories “communication with staff” and “support after birth.”
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys feel like a smart, adaptive interview, powered by AI. Instead of static forms, patients engage through real-time chat—questions adapt to each answer, making the feedback process more comfortable and authentic.
Traditional survey creation often means wrestling with rigid builders, previewing, and editing logic flows by hand. In contrast, using an AI survey builder lets you chat with the AI to instantly create (or edit) your survey in natural language, freeing up your brain for what matters—asking smarter questions and acting on results.
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
|---|---|
Time-consuming to create and update | Instant creation with natural language prompts |
Rigid structure, hard to personalize | Adaptive, feels like a real conversation |
Feedback often incomplete or vague | Follows up for clarity in real time |
Data analysis is labor-intensive | AI summarizes and analyzes instantly |
Why use AI for patient surveys? AI survey examples like those from Specific eliminate survey creation headaches. You get ready-made or custom conversational surveys that adapt, follow up, and support multilingual experiences. Instead of manual analysis, AI spots themes, summarizes pain points, and helps you act faster—all with less effort and more insight. For tips on building effective surveys from scratch, check out our how-to guide.
Specific offers a best-in-class conversational survey experience, making feedback smoother and more engaging for both patients and healthcare staff. “AI survey example” and “AI survey generator” searches deliver better results when you want a conversational, adaptive experience that works everywhere desktop or mobile.
See this childbirth experience survey example now
Ready for deeper, actionable insights? Try a next-gen childbirth experience survey—you’ll instantly see how conversational AI transforms patient feedback, making it richer and easier to act on.