Women with a positive experience of childbirth quickly forget about pain. As shown by a recent study, memories of the intensity of pain during childbirth decrease with time in only half of women. Some women retain these memories, and some even increase.
Dr. Ulla Waldenstrom and her colleagues from the Department of Maternal and Child Health of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (Karolinska Institute) interviewed 1,383 women in 2 months, a year and 5 years after childbirth. All women were asked how much pain they experienced during childbirth. Women who had planned cesarean section in the survey did not participate.
After 5 years after delivery, 49% of women described their birth as less painful than they thought 2 months after the birth. Thirty-five percent of women assessed the level of pain at birth as well as after 2 months, and 16% noted that they remember the pain at birth as stronger than 2 months after them.
"Usually it is believed that over time women begin to feel that the pain at birth was not so strong," writes Dr. Ulla Waldenstrom, "but judging by our results, even at the current level of obstetric care, this is true only for half of women".
It is noteworthy that memories of the intensity of pain depend on the general impression of a woman from childbirth. Women who rated their experience of childbirth as favorable reported a lower pain level 2 months after the baby's birth, and their memories of labor pain a year later and 5 years after delivery decreased. However, for women with negative experience of childbirth this dependence did not work, the researchers note in the March issue of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology).
About 60% of women who participated in the study named favorable their experience of birth, while 10% were dissatisfied with their childbirth. In women, on which labor produced an unpleasant or very unpleasant impression, memories of the intensity of pain were not weakened, and 5 years after childbirth.
"The more pleasant the woman's memories of the birth itself, the faster she forgets how painful they were," concludes Dr. Waldenstrom.
In addition, during interviews and analysis of its results, it was noted that women who gave birth under epidural anesthesia, memories of pain during childbirth were brighter.
According to researchers, this is because women who gave birth without anesthesia remember the peak intensity of pain.
The authors of the study believe that the general impression of a woman from birth can serve as an indicator of whether she will need additional psychological support after childbirth.
health. sumy. ua.
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