Perineal pain following childbirth: prevalence, effects on postnatal recovery and analgesia usage

To establish the prevalence of perineal pain, the effects of pain on postnatal recovery, analgesia used to relieve pain and the perceived effectiveness of such analgesia at the Royal Women's Hospital, Victoria, Australia.

We conducted structured interviews of 215 women in the postnatal ward of a tertiary hospital, within 72 hours of a vaginal birth.

The structured interviews revealed that 90% of women reported some perineal pain, with 37% reporting moderate or severe pain. The degree of perineal trauma predicted women's ratings of perineal pain on a visual analogue scale, with more severe trauma related to higher pain scores. Over a third of women experienced moderate or severe perineal pain, particularly when walking (33%) or sitting (39%), while 45% noted that pain interfered with their ability to sleep. Women reported moderate or severe perineal pain when they undertook activities involving feeding their infant (12%) or caring for their infant (12%). Women used a range of analgesia, including a combination of ice packs (69%), oral analgesia (75%), narcotic analgesia (4%) and anti-inflammatory suppositories (25%). The majority of women rated these forms of analgesia as effective and identified very few side effects.

Following vaginal birth, women commonly reported pain from perineal trauma. This pain affected women's ability to mobilise and was relieved by a variety of agents. Side effects from analgesia were rare.

The prevalence of perineal pain and the associated impact on women's recovery from childbirth warrants midwives' proactive care in offering a range of effective pain relief options to women.