Parity and pain during parturition.

A descriptive study was undertaken to investigate the differences in pain reported by 17 primiparous and 33 multiparous parturients. Subjects responded to the McGill pain questionnaire during the early, active, and transitional phases of the first stage of labor, and immediately after delivery for the second stage of labor. Although no significant main effect for parity on pain was identified by repeated measures analyses of variance, significant interaction effects suggested that primiparas may experience greater pain during early labor and less pain during second stage than multiparas.