Tandon Archita, Gujral Kanwal, Gupta Vipin
Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, New Delhi, IND.
Institute of Obstetric and Gynaecology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, IND.
Cureus. 2025 Jun 22;17(6):e86540. doi: 10.7759/cureus.86540. eCollection 2025 Jun.
Childbirth is a deeply personal and subjective experience for women, shaped by individual expectations and sociocultural perceptions. Many women approach labour with specific mental imagery and expectations regarding pain and the birthing process. However, these expectations often differ from the actual experience, which can result in emotional distress during and after childbirth. This scoping review systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases to identify studies published between 1984 and 2024 focusing on labour pain perception and experience. Only peer-reviewed articles in English were considered. This review identified three major themes that highlighted labour pain, pain management, and the sociocultural factors that were associated with it. It has revealed that the experience of women was consistent with what they had perceived about pain, while it was inconsistent in terms of perception of pain relief during labour. However, the sociocultural paradigm did hold its place in meddling between the perceptions and experiences of these women during labour pain and management. The exploration of personal attributes and sociocultural dynamics that shaped the women's ascription of meanings to labour pain add context to how a similar physiological experience can be perceived and experienced differently.
分娩对女性来说是一段非常个人化且主观的经历，受到个人期望和社会文化观念的影响。许多女性在分娩时对疼痛和分娩过程有着特定的心理意象和期望。然而，这些期望往往与实际经历不同，这可能导致分娩期间及之后的情绪困扰。本综述性研究系统检索了PubMed、Scopus和科学网数据库，以确定1984年至2024年期间发表的关注分娩疼痛感知和体验的研究。仅纳入英文的同行评审文章。该综述确定了三个主要主题，突出了分娩疼痛、疼痛管理以及与之相关的社会文化因素。研究表明，女性的体验与她们对疼痛的感知一致，但在分娩期间对疼痛缓解的感知方面却不一致。然而，社会文化范式在这些女性分娩疼痛及管理的感知和体验之间确实起到了干预作用。对塑造女性赋予分娩疼痛意义的个人特质和社会文化动态的探索，为类似的生理体验如何被不同地感知和经历增添了背景信息。
