perception of Iranian women from labor pain

Consciously and actively experiencing labor pain can be associated with spiritual development and understanding of individual strengths and provide an opportunity for women to always have pleasant memories of childbirth. The present study aimed to explore women’s actual experiences of labor pain.
This is a qualitative study conducted on a purposeful sample of 17 women with the experience of normal childbirth. Data were collected by semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using content analysis approach proposed by Graneheim and Lundman.
The participants were 17 women, with a mean age of 33 years and the majority of them had undergraduate education or higher and middle-level income. Sub-categories emerged from this study included “the duality of feelings”, “positive insight”, “self-steam” and “spirituality” that generated the main category of “transcendence by experiencing labor pain”.
According to recent policies of the Ministry of Health in order to make normal vaginal delivery pleasant and considering the Iranian cultural and religious background about the sanctity of natural childbirth, profound and spiritual understanding of the experience of labor pain can help to develop appropriate programs and supportive practices for the laboring women, resulting in maintaining human greatness.