Assessment and documentation of women's labour pain: A cross-sectional study in Swedish delivery wards.
BACKGROUND
A woman's pain during labour plays a dominant role in childbirth. The midwife's role is to assess the degree of pain experienced during labour. When professionals respond to labour pain with acknowledgement and understanding, the woman's sense of control and empowerment is increased, which could contribute to a positive experience of childbirth. The aim of this study is to describe how labour pain in Swedish delivery wards is assessed and documented.


METHODS
This quantitative descriptive study was designed as a national survey performed through telephone interviews with the representatives of 34 delivery wards in Sweden.


RESULTS AND CONCLUSION
The majority of the participating delivery wards assessed and documented women's labour pain, but in an unstructured manner. The wards differed in how the assessments and documentation were performed. In addition, almost all the delivery wards that participated in the survey lacked guidelines for the assessment and documentation of the degree of pain during labour. The findings also showed that the issue of labour pain was sometimes discussed in the delivery wards, but not in a structured or consistent way.
['Bergh|Ingrid H E|IH|', 'Johansson|Anna|A|', 'Bratt|Annelie|A|', 'Ekström|Anette|A|', 'Mårtensson|Lena B|LB|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D003625:Data Collection D003695:Delivery of Health Care D005260:Female D006801:Humans D048949:Labor Pain D007743:Labor, Obstetric D009035:Mothers D010147:Pain Measurement D036801:Parturition D017060:Patient Satisfaction D011247:Pregnancy D013548:Sweden D064232:Visual Analog Scale D055815:Young Adult
Documentation Childbirth Midwifery Pain assessment Visual analogue scale