Clinical studies have not resolved whether prepared childbirth techniques alter the maternal experience of pain. In order to examine the effectiveness of prepared childbirth strategies on perception and endurance to pain, attention focusing and two methods of systematic relaxation were studied in 6 combinations in 52 subjects exposed to ice-water pain. The attention focusing plus feedback relaxation (AF+FR) strategy most closely resembled childbirth techniques and was found to be the most effective. AF+FR subjects experienced only about 1/2 the pain of the control subjects for up to 3 min pain exposure while enduring the pain 2.5 times longer than control subjects. Pain endurance was found to be inversely related to pain perception for all subjects. All AF+FR subjects endured 2 min pain exposure while 6 of 9 control subjects terminated. Prepared childbirth strategies improved with practice, were effective for pain durations longer than labor contractions and are more effective than distraction techniques examined in other studies. These results demonstrate the prepared childbirth strategies produce psychoanalgesia and suggest that psychoanalgesic strategies may adequately substitute for chemical analgesics in normal vaginal delivery.
With permission from Excerpta Medica Inc.

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