Abstract
Background and Objectives: A woman’s perception of labor pain is affected by different issues such as cultural, social, psychosocial and environmental factors. Due to limited studies performed on labor pain in our country, we aimed at studying more on this topic.
Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-comparative study, women’s hospitals were selected by using multistep random-sampling method considering each category’s segment. One hundred and fifty cases were randomly selected for each category. Data collection was done using questionnaire and labor pain was measured with visual analogue scale of pain (VAS) and interviewing.
Results: In this study, in the state hospitals the mean score of pain in primiparas was 8.21±2.65, while it was 8.90 ±2.48 in the multiparas. In the private hospitals, the mean score of pain in primiparas was 8.90±1.09, while it was 9.07 ±1.13 in multiparas. The mean score of pain in private hospitals was higher than the state hospitals (P<0.001). The result of regression model showed that factors such as type of hospital, environmental, therapeutical and caring factors, and labor phobia are considered as items for predicting the rate of pain intensity. The relationship between fear, anxiety and social, treatment factors and the pain was not significant in primiparas. Also relationship between the level of supporting and the pain in primiparas was significant but it was not the same in multiparas.
Conclusion: The results showed that the type of hospital, physical and environmental factors, treatment and care, labor fear and anxiety increased the pain intensity.