Women's anticipation and experience of childbirth: the independence of fulfillment, unpleasantness and pain.

Adjectives or phrases used by women in their description of childbirth were identified by interviewing two groups of 10 women, one drawn from an antenatal clinic, the other following delivery of a healthy child. The terms obtained were formed into a questionnaire on which 106 antenatal women described their expectations of childbirth and 82 postnatal women described their experience. Principal components analysis revealed two important findings. First, the ratings were multidimensional; that is, a dimension of fulfillment and achievement was independent of one of emotional feeling. Second, painfulness was not associated with either dimension.