Women's experience of pain during childbirth

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Labor pain is one of the most severe pains which has ever evaluated and its fear is one of the reasons women wouldn't go for natural delivery. Considering different factors which affect experiencing pain, this study aimed to explain women's experiences of pain during childbirth.

METHODS: This was a qualitative phenomenological study. The study population was composed of 14 women in 6 weeks post partum period of natural delivery. The data was collected by interview. The data were analyzed by Colaizzi seven-stage method.

RESULTS: After analyzing the interviews four main categories were extracted: 1) nature of delivery pain, 2) related factors in labor pain, 3) results of labor pain, and 4) perception of caseworkers.

CONCLUSIONS: Assessing the women's experiences can be useful in giving better care besides help understanding delivery pain phenomenon. Positive aspects of delivery pain must be strengthened and its negative aspects must be reduced as much as possible and create a suitable vision of it.

KEY WORDS: Women's experience, pain, delivery pain.