[The meaning of pain in labor]

From of old, labor has been accompanied by pain and much effort has been made to eliminate or diminish the amounts of pain during labor. Little concern has yet been given to the subjective meaning of pain in labor. Recently, rates of cesarean section in Korea and in some other nations have increased rapidly and some investigators are reporting negative reactions such as anger, disappointment and feeling of loss due to lack of control over labor and its pain. These findings are thought to suggest that control of labor and its pain gives some meaning to the laboring woman. Thus the investigators sought to discover the meaning of pain during labor for Korean women. Specific objectives of this study were to explore the meaning of pain in labor to the mothers, their reactions to the experience of labor and their preference for delivery method. The subjects of this study were 95 mothers who delivered their babies in hospital from September 1989 to May 1990: 45 gave birth by vaginal delivery, and 50 by cesarean section. Data were gathered through direct interviews by the investigators, and questions were focused on five areas i.e. mothers' feelings about delivery and their babies, their feelings about of having more children, the most difficult aspect about this labor and delivery, and what they thought the differences were between vaginal delivery and cesarean section. After interview, mothers' answers were summarized, and classified according to the degree of positive or negative attitude.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)