Signs and Symptoms
Labour is accompanied by intense and prolonged pain. Pain levels reported by labouring women vary widely. Pain levels seem to be influenced by fear and anxiety levels, experience with prior childbirth, cultural ideas of childbirth and pain, mobility during labour and the support given during labour. One study found that middle-eastern women, especially those with a low educational background, had more painful experiences during childbirth.
Pain is only one factor of many influencing women's experience with the process of childbirth. A systematic review of 137 studies found that personal expectations, the amount of support from caregivers, quality of the caregiver-patient relationship, and involvement in decisionmaking are more important in women's overall satisfaction with the experience of childbirth than are other factors such as age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, preparation, physical environment, pain, immobility, or medical interventions.
Read more about this topic: Childbirth
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