ArticleBMJ open2022
Maternal childbirth experience and pain relief methods: a retrospective 7-year cohort study of 85 488 parturients in Finland.
Article in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pharmacological pain relief and women´s birth experience: a systematic review.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Pooled it
- Exploring Priority Intrapartum Services Associated with Childbirth Experience During Vaginal Birth: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Patient-reported outcomes after hysterectomy due to pelvic organ prolapse versus other indications - a 10-year national follow-up study.BMC women's health · 2026Article
- Virtual reality for the treatment of perinatal mental health: a rapid scoping review.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Primiparous and multiparous women's birthing experiences and satisfaction with pain management in the first and second stages of vaginal delivery-A prospective cohort study.Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2025Article
- Cultural adaptation, validation and evaluation of the psychometric properties of Childbirth Experience Questionnaire version 2.0 in the Spanish context.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Neuroanatomical and functional consequences of oxytocin treatment at birth in prairie voles.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
- A Qualitative Study on Postpartum Women Experienced Various Pain Throughout the Perinatal Period Based on the Thrive Model.Patient preference and adherence · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe aim of this study was to analyse the relation between the used labour pain relief and childbirth experience measured by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS).
designA retrospective cohort study.
settingChildbirth in five Helsinki University Hospital delivery units from 2012 to 2018. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: Childbirth experience measured by VAS and classified in three groups (negative VAS=1-5, positive VAS=6-8 and highly positive=9-10).
resultsThe use of epidural or non-epidural compared with non-medical pain relief methods decreased the likelihood to experience highly positive childbirth for primiparous (adjusted OR (aOR)
conclusionWhile the use of medical-epidural and non-epidural-pain relief methods were not associated with odds for experiencing negative childbirth in primiparas, using epidural helps to avoid negative experience in multiparas. However, the odds for experiencing highly positive childbirth were decreased if the parturients used any medical pain relief for both primiparas and multiparas. Consequently, the effect of pain relief on the childbirth experience is strongly confounded by indication. Thus, the use of pain relief per se plays a limited role in the complex formation of the overall childbirth experience.
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