Pain and pain relief in labour: parturients' experiences.
The experiences of 890 parturients were studied across Finland during one week to determine how they experienced labour pain and how effective they regarded the means to alleviate it. The majority of women (72%) had been afraid of labour and 88% had intended to request some pharmacological pain relief. 84% of primiparous and 72% of multiparous rated their pain severe or unbearable. Epidural analgesia was found to be the most effective method in the first stage of labour, but in the second this superiority was no longer apparent. Unfortunately, it seems to be readily available only during office hours in spite of the fact that the majority of deliveries happen outside of that time.
Kangas-Saarela
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Department of Anaesthesiology, The Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.
Kangas-Kärki
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K