HealthPartners - Preparing for childbirth

CHAPTER 3 Pain and Comfort

Understanding Pain It’s no secret that childbirth can be painful. Pain is a real thing, but it’s also subjective. How you perceive and respond to pain can be influenced by the people around you and your past experiences. Of course, this will be different for everyone. When you understand how your mind and body react to pain, you can learn techniques to manage it during labor and birth.

HOW FEAR INCREASES PAIN Simply put, when you think something (like a labor contraction) will be painful, it’s normal to feel fear . Your fear causes you to feel extra stress and tension . Tension makes the pain worse. When the pain is worse, you become even more afraid of the next contraction. And you’re stuck in what is called the fear-tension-pain cycle. The key to avoiding this cycle is to minimize your fears, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. But you can ease your fear of labor pain by: • Understanding how your body works • Maintaining a positive, confident attitude • Learning how to truly relax your mind and body In addition to increasing pain levels, tension and fear also trigger other negative “fight or flight” responses. For example, redirecting your blood supply away from “nonessential” organs. Because your uterus is a nonessential organ, it can end up with little or no blood supply to fuel labor contractions. This can slow labor with possible health consequences. Learning to release fear and tension and let your uterus do its job can make a huge difference in your overall birth experience.

FEAR-TENSION-PAIN CYCLE

30 Your Guide to Labor and Birth