Childbirth is rarely painless; it is always associated with suffering. Some women, having suffered during the first birth, await the second with horror. But in most cases, fears are in vain.
In general, we can say that talk about the terrible suffering that women in labor are supposedly experiencing are greatly exaggerated. The degree of suffering is directly proportional to the degree of complication of childbirth. If childbirth goes well, the pain is quite bearable.
Complications that increase the suffering of a woman can occur both during the first birth and during repeated ones. If both those and other childbirth proceed without complications, then repeated childbirth in most cases turns out to be less difficult than the first. There are two kinds of reasons for this - physiological and psychological.
Physiological causes
In a primiparous woman, the cervix is “sealed” rather tightly before the onset of labor pains - after all, it has never opened, therefore, its opening requires considerable effort and time. In the multiparous muscle, the cervix has already been stretched once, so it takes much less effort and time to open. Thanks to this, the period of contractions - the longest part of the labor process - is shorter during the second birth, in primiparous they last 10-12 hours, in multiparous ones - 8-10.
Easier in multiparous and expulsion of the fetus (pushing stage). Perhaps the most painful moment of childbirth is the divergence of the pelvic bones during the eruption of the fetal head. In most cases, the woman's pelvis does not become the same after the first birth. This can upset the woman, causing a change in figure, but with repeated childbirth, it significantly reduces her suffering.
Psychological reasons
The degree of pain sensation is largely determined by the psychological, emotional state of a person. Feelings of fear greatly increase the pain. A frightened person, confident that "now it will hurt," is able to feel pain even if there are no real reasons for the pain, this has been proven in numerous experiments.
The fear that a primiparous woman may experience is in many ways a fear of the unknown, exacerbated by conversations about the suffering of women in labor, which she probably heard. Often, the matter is aggravated by the presence in her immediate environment of people (usually women) who enjoy telling "scary stories" about childbirth in the presence of pregnant women. Critical thinking during pregnancy can be reduced, and such conversations set up a woman to be afraid of childbirth.
With repeated childbirth, there is no longer the fear of the unknown: the woman learned in practice how childbirth proceeds, realized that it was not as terrible as she was told, therefore, the pain sensations would not intensify. True, the opposite effect is possible here if the first birth was complicated. Such a woman will need the right psychological preparation, possibly with the participation of a specialist.
