As intense as the labor pains have been, women tend to forget the suffering to give way to joy at the birth of a child.
However, not all mothers forget pain so easily. In some, the sensation of pain does not diminish and even increases over time.
This has been proven by a study by scientists from the Department of Women's and Children's Health of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, according to which for almost half of the women who have a baby, memories of the intensity of pain in childbirth disappear over time but in the rest the memories of pain remain even 5 years after delivery.
It is very interesting to note that memories of pain during childbirth that remain in women influence the level of general satisfaction of the mother with her individual experience during childbirth.
Apparently, those mothers who have had a birth in which they have felt understood, heard, accompanied and well cared for, have a better memory of the pain of childbirth. It does not mean that it hurts less, but it may be more easily forgotten.
In those who rated their birth experience as positive, the pain registry had decreased 2 months later, while those who rated it as negative or very negative the memory of pain remained vivid 5 years later.
As a curious fact of the study, doctors have found that women who had received epidural anesthesia remembered the pain as more intense than those to whom it had not been applied. As interpreted by the study authors, the latter patients would remember "peak pain."
Without a doubt, the experience of childbirth is a very significant fact for the woman who becomes a mother. The study shows that more important than the intensity of pain itself, is the memory of pain linked to the experience we have lived.
