Women who catastrophize labor pain - that is, they have an exaggerated negative orientation to pain - are likely to adjust less readily to the demands of motherhood and are more prone to postpartum depression, research shows.

Dr. Sari Goldstein Ferber, of the University of Haifa, Israel, and colleagues studied the impact of labor pain intensity and labor pain catastrophizing on maternity blues and postpartum social functioning in 89 women in active labor prior to administration of pain-relieving analgesia.

Pain catastrophizing includes three components: focus on pain, exaggeration of the consequences of pain, and experience of helplessness, the team explains in the March issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

After adjusting for the mom’s age and education, the number of children she had previously, and type of analgesia, pain catastrophizing during labor - rather than pain intensity - significantly predicted maternity blues and postpartum social functioning.

Younger and less educated women also had a higher risk of depression and impaired social functioning.

These findings suggest that before analgesia is given, pain catastrophizing should be addressed, the team suggests. “It is possible that early assessment may be of clinical value for the identification of women with the potential risk for later impaired adjustment,” they conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology March 2005.