Meaning of pain in a normal delivery in the perspective and experience of a group of women treated at the Unified Health System

Abstract

This is a qualitative and descriptive study that aims at understanding the meaning of pain in normal delivery for parturients treated at a public maternity hospital in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil. The study considered their perspectives during the first pregnancy and their experiences of pain during labour. Voluntary primigravida women were interviewed before and after their normal delivery. The questions' topic was normal delivery. The women's responses were analyzed by the Interpretation of Meaning methodology. The participants were aged between 18 to 31 years old, with a full antenatal assessment, and a normal pregnancy development and delivery. From the analysis of their discourses the following thematic categories emerged: "the meaning of pain during a normal delivery from their expectations during antenatal" and "the meaning of pain in a normal delivery from an institutionalized delivery experience". The meaning of pain constructed during antenatal period was understood either as a natural phenomenon inherent to childbirth or as a source of suffering. Based on their experiences as delivery protagonists the majority developed a meaning of pain as a phenomenon inherent to a natural delivery and a women's domain. These results constitute important tool for health professionals in the planning of antenatal educational activities and strategies for the monitoring and management of pain. Such activities should promote the women's comfort and satisfaction according to a humanized obstetrics perspective as recommended by the World Health Organization.