What is labor pain like? Tell me what your pain is like and I will tell you what type of mother you are

Abstract

Researching the experience of pain requires adopting a constructivist theoretical perspective which makes it possible to go beyond biologicist and also subjectivist analytical positions, as both usually provide incomplete analyses of reality. This paper intends to show that social aspects have an influence on the perception of labor pain, taking into account that it is scientifically and commonly accepted as one of the most intense pains that may be suffered. To this end, ten discussion groups were set up, made up of women who gave birth in the past two years, complying with certain criteria of age, level of studies, working status, and habitat. After analyzing their social discourses, the main results show that labor pain is attributed different meanings depending on the type of motherhood women are identified with. The type of motherhood they choose is linked to the women's social conditions of life and to the discourses present in their environment, which are predominantly built on common knowledge, outside the scientific sphere. It is also observed that, through social practices linked to motherhood, women aim to obtain symbolic capital, which is the social recognition of being a good mother. The paper shows that pain has a social dimension that shapes its experience, as well as the existence of a consensus among women to adopt it as a useful, convenient practice.