OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate a novel assessment tool for the assessment of perceived care quality of women’s experiences of maternity care.  The current study reports the psychometric properties of the developed Perceptions of Care Adjective Check List–Revised (PCACL-R). METHODS: Data were collected from a United Kingdom national survey of women’s experiences of maternity care (n = 2960).  Confirmatory factor analysis, convergent validity analysis, convergent validity analysis, predictive validity and internal consistency approaches were used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the tool.  RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a excellent fit to a bi-dimensional structure entirely consistent with the negative and positive valencing of adjectives in the measure, consistent with the use of the tool as a two (negative/positive) sub-scale tool.  The PCACL-R revealed good convergent validity and excellent divergent validity characteristics.  Discriminant validity was assessed against measures of maternal deprivation, partner status and type of delivery and revealed good discriminant validity of the PCACL-R.  Internal consistency characteristics of the two PCACL-R sub-scales were acceptable.  The predictive validity of the PCACL-R was also excellent.  CONCLUSIONS: The PCACL-R is recommended as a valid, reliable, respondent acceptable and easy to administer instrument to assess women’s experiences of their maternity care.