Acta clinica Croatica, Vol. 60. No. 3., 2021.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.20471/acc.2021.60.03.09
Pain and Anxiety Experience in the Choice of Epidural Analgesia in Delivery
Lidija Fumić Dunkić
; Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital Centre, Zagreb, Croatia
Gorka Vuletić
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia; Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The experience of labor pain is a complex process that represents the interaction of
the nociceptive stimulus within the physiologic process with a series of psychological factors. The aim
of this study was to investigate the relation between the choice of epidural analgesia as a form of pain
management and psychological state of woman in labor; moreover, whether the women in labor with
a higher level of anxiety have a more intensive experience of pain during labor and therefore decide on
epidural analgesia. Pain was evaluated by the visual analog scale, while the sensory and affective pain
components were evaluated by the McGill Pain Questionnaire, and anxiety as a trait was measured
with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-form X. Women in labor with a higher level of anxiety had a
significantly increased affective component of pain, but did not significantly more frequently decide
on labor with epidural analgesia. The women having chosen epidural analgesia experienced more intense
pain during delivery before epidural analgesia, with the sensory component of pain being less
pronounced in the women in labor without epidural analgesia, while there was no difference in the
affective component of pain.
Keywords
Epidural analgesia; Delivery; Pain; Anxiety
Hrčak ID:
271429
URI
Publication date:
1.9.2021.
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