Accuracy of remembering postdelivery pain.
Memory for pain after delivery was assessed by means of a verbal rating scale. 238 young women giving birth to healthy babies as a result of spontaneous delivery were asked to rate intensity of pain immediately following delivery. A day or two later, they were asked to remember how much pain they had experienced immediately after delivery. Analysis showed that the recall of pain was fairly accurate, irrespective of personality type, the level of education, and the number of childbirths. The findings provide some support for the reliability of pain reports from memory for a nonpatient population experiencing a rather unique pain experience.
D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology*; D010298:Parity; D010551:Personality; D011247:Pregnancy; D011644:Puerperal Disorders / Q000523:psychology*