Articles: pain.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Labor room and laboratory: clinical validation of the cold pressor as a means of testing preparation for childbirth strategies.
Annually, numerous couples prepare for childbirth through Lamaze childbirth education classes. Research on various portions of the Lamaze method has used the cold pressor as an analogue for labor. In this experiment, pregnant women who had attended either (a) Lamaze classes which taught pain control methods (n = 22), or (b) Red Cross parenting classes which did not teach pain control methods (n = 7), and students who received either (c) brief Lamaze training (n = 10), or (d) no training (n = 10), were tested on the cold pressor. ⋯ Post hoc analyses showed that women who managed labor pain well performed better on the cold pressor task than women who did not manage labor pain well. This experiment established some limits for applying analogue results to childbirth. Moreover, it showed that women who attended Lamaze classes received less medication during labor than women who attended Red Cross classes; however, it was not clear whether this difference was due to the Lamaze classes per se, or to other uncontrolled variables.