Mothers perception of pain during labour.

The subject of the thesis is the labor pain and methods of pain control. The theoretical part focuses on a description of the process of childbirth and the role of midwifes at each stage of labor. This is followed by a general description of pain as well as the labor pain, methods of pain evaluation and overview of pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods used in obstetric analgesia. The research part of the work explores women's experience of pain during childbirth and methods that women prefer in relieving labor pain. For research survey was used qualitative method of data collection, using semi-structured interviews. Information obtained were divided into two main categories: "Women's experience with labor pain" and "Methods of relieving labor pain" Both categories were further subdivided into categories. Results of the research showed that women during pregnancy did not want to think about the oncoming birth pain because these ideas evoked feelings of fear and apprehension. Most women have no way to prepare for labor pain and the character and intensity of labor pain surprised almost all women. The vast majority of women accepted the offer of pharmacological labor pain reliever even though they didn't intend to originally. In addition, majority of them felt frustrated by the low effects of pharmacological methods and they attributed greater analgesic effect to non-pharmacological methods, including the presence of close person during childbirth and positive attitude of medical staff. Midwifes' help in relieving labor pain was evaluated very positively by all respondents. The results shows that the most important thing is coaching pregnant women by midwifes in preparation for labor pain and thus reduce feelings of anxiety and fear of pain during childbirth