Are there differences in pain intensity between two consecutive vaginal childbirths? A retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Pain assessment is crucial for in-labour pain management. Even though women's self-rated pain intensity is the standard for pain relief or analgesic administration, multiparas appear to receive worse in-labour pain management than primiparas do. The discrepancy in pain perception between primiparas and multiparas remains unclear. Healthcare providers tend to think that multiparas endure the pain and report less pain because they have experienced childbirth. OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively analyse the intensity of in-labour pain during first and second vaginal childbirth within the same group of women and explore whether parity may be an influential factor in labour pain intensity. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Labour and delivery in a large academic specialized hospital in Guangzhou, China. PARTICIPANTS: Women were included if they had two consecutive vaginal childbirths with singleton cephalic presentations and cervical dilation