What characterizes women who want to give birth as naturally as possible without painkillers or intervention?
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Updated: Jun 6, 2026

An Experimental Paradigm for the Prediction of Post-Operative Pain (PPOP)
Published on: January 27, 2010
Tone Kringeland1, Anne Kjersti Daltveit, Anders Møller
1Stord/Haugesund University College, Haugesund, Norway; The Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg, Sweden. tone.kringeland@hsh.no
Objective:
To describe the characteristics of pregnant women who wish to have as natural a birth as possible without analgesics and without intervention.
Study Design:
National cohort study.
Setting:
Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Population:
55,859 pregnant women booked for antenatal care in Norway 1999-2007.
Methods:
Data on women's interest in natural birth and a set of possible predictors were retrieved from a questionnaire completed at the 30th week of pregnancy and linked to the Medical Birth Registry of Norway.
Main Outcome Measure:
Natural birth and the characteristics of pregnant women with such preferences.
Results:
Interest in natural childbirth was consistently expressed by 72%. Positive experience from previous pregnancies, first birth or third or later birth, no fear of giving birth, and reporting positive intra-psychic phenomena are significantly associated with the wish for natural birth.
Conclusions:
Positive experiences from previous childbirths and no fear of giving birth are the strongest factors associated with a wish for as natural birth as possible and should be taken into consideration in public health.
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