engleski

Psychosocial determinants of pain during childbirth

Introduction. Childbirth is considered to be one of the most intense painful experiences in a woman’s life. The experience of childbirth pain is the result of a complex interaction of multiple physiological and psychosocial factors that further influence a woman’s individual interpretation of nociceptive stimuli during childbirth. The perception of pain is the result of a process in the brain whereby the nociceptive stimulus is treated with a number of factors and individual pain perception is specific to each individual with different response to the nociceptive stimulus as a manifestation of different components of pain. Nociceptive pain is “physical” as opposed to the affective component of pain that represents a psycho-emotional experience of pain. Aim. To examine the correlation between different determinants of pain experience in childbirth (age, number of births, and experience of affective and sensory quality of pain, anxiety). Method(s). The study was conducted at the University Hospital Sisters of Charity in Zagreb, on a sample of 124 parturient women. One-dimensional scale, VAS scale, was used to assess pain intensity, and the Melzack-McGill Pain Questionnaire provided information on the qualitative aspect of pain. The STAI-X scale was used to assess anxiety as a personality trait, which assessed relatively stable individual differences in anxiety preference. Results. Overall anxiety was not significantly associated with experiencing pain intensity, nor with the sensory component of pain, but was significantly positively associated with the affective component of pain. Furthermore, maternity age was statistically significantly negatively related to the sensory component of pain but not affective. Conclusion. The results indicate the importance of the maternity psychic condition in experiencing pain in childbirth.

pain, childbirth, anxiety

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