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Assessment Of Perineal Pain On Women Experience During The Postnatal Period

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Assessment of Perineal Pain
Adequate and effective management of perineal pain begins with a comprehensive assessment (Marcus et al, 2009; Breivikl et al, 2008; Dalton et al, 1999). However, Andrews et al, (2008) UK-based study concluded that there is no pain scale to date that has been developed to appropriately and accurately assess the perineal pain that women experience during the postnatal period. This begins to offer explanation as why up to 92% of new mothers endure perineal pain in the early postpartum period (Macarthur and Macarthur, 2004).To further support these findings Way (2012) discovered that women expect perineal pain following vaginal birth but under estimate the severity of the pain. Women will experience high levels of pain before requesting analgesia as they attempt to normalise the pain as a consequence of vaginal delivery (Swain and Dahlen, 2013). Macarthur and Macarthur (2004) conclude that the current management of perineal pain is inadequate as the use of analgesia is not standardised.
Both Macarthur and Macarthur (2004) and Andrews et al, (2008) used a prospective cohort research design to obtain their data. The sample population that was needed to ensure that the results produced were statistically significant was, therefore, larger (Rees, 2011). Macarthur and Macarthur (2004) used a sample size of four hundred and forty-seven women from Toronto, Canada, and Andrews et al, (2008) included two hundred and forty-one women from London, England. The

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