Study: For Some Women, Memory of Childbirth Pain Intensifies Over Time
NEW YORK — Research shows that for about half of women who give birth, memories of the intensity of labor pain decline over time. However, for some women, their recollection of pain does not seem to diminish and for a minority, their memory of pain increases with time.
“The study also shows that the memory of childbirth pain is influenced by a woman’s overall satisfaction with her labor experience.

Dr. Ulla Waldenström, from the Department of Woman and Child Health at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm and colleagues queried 1383 mothers about their memories of labor pain at 2 months, 1 year and 5 years after giving birth. Women who elected to have a cesarean section were excluded.

Five years after the women had given birth, 49 percent remembered childbirth as less painful than when they rated it 2 months after birth, 35 percent rated it the same, and 16 percent rated it as more painful.

“A commonly held view,” Waldenström noted in an email to Reuters Health, “is that women forget the intensity of labour pain. The present study…provides evidence that in modern obstetric care, this is true for about 50 percent of women.”

However, a woman’s labor experience was an influential factor. Women who reported labor as a positive experience 2 months after childbirth had the lowest pain scores, and their memory of the intensity of pain had declined by 1 year and 5 years after giving birth.”

Perhaps we should take on the task of teaching new mothers HOW to give birth naturally, thus limiting or completely stopping the pain altogether…

Jenny Hatch

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