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Pain in Labor
Expectations and experiences of pain in labor:
findings from a large
prospective study.
Data on expectations and experiences of pain in labor are presented
from a prospective study of over
700 women who gave birth in six maternity units in southeast
England. Most women preferred to keep
drug use to a minimum, even though they expected labor to be quite
or very painful. The ideal of
avoiding drugs was unrelated to education or social class. Women who
preferred to avoid drugs were
more likely to do so, and were more satisfied with the birth overall
than women who used drugs. In
general, women tended to get what they expected. Breathing and
relaxation exercises were widely
used, and were most successful for those who had expected them to be
so. Anxiety about the pain of
labor was a strong predictor of negative experiences during labor,
lack of satisfaction with the birth, and
poor emotional well-being postnatally.
Birth 1993 Jun;20(2):65-72
Copyright © 1997, 1998 by Childbirth.org All rights reserved.
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