Childbirth with Husband Hurts More

The scientists from University College London believe that the fashion for childbirth with husbands can play a bad trick with women. They have found that women feel more intense pain when giving birth together with a partner.

For many women from Western countries, the very thought of having to give birth without the beloved man beside seems terrible – this is where the new tradition comes from. But studies show that women cope with this task better without men. The scientists from the United Kingdom found that the presence of a beloved partner strengthens women’s pain during childbirth.

Although childbirth with a husband is organized specifically to reduce the intensity of pain in the expectant mother, scientists have not found a single woman who would experience less suffering in the presence of her husband or boyfriend. The study authors experimented with 39 women, whose pain level was measured by affecting their finger with laser beam injections in the presence of their husbands or boyfriends and without them. At first, women’s fingers were pricked when they were with their men and then alone.

The researchers monitored the electrical activity of women’s brain. Furthermore, the ladies were asked to evaluate the level of pain according to the 11-point scale. It turned out that the pain that women experienced in the presence of men was always stronger than the pain experienced without the loved one.