Persistent pain after caesarean delivery and vaginal birth

Persistent pain after childbirth has recently received a lot of attention as potentially many women could be affected. Several pain syndromes including pelvic girdle pain, low back pain, and headaches occur during the pregnancy and can persist after delivery. The prevalence of chronic pain directly related to the delivery, at 6 months and later after childbirth, is however very low (< 2%) compared to chronic pain which occurs after other types of tissue trauma as in common surgical procedures. Acute pain is a major risk factor in the development of persistent pain after surgery and trauma. After childbirth, the severity of acute pain, independent of the mode of delivery (i.e. the degree of tissue damage) only predicts an increased risk of persistent pain (a 2.5-fold increase) at 2 months but not later. An individual’s pain response seems to be the most relevant factor in the development of persistent pain. In retrospective studies, patient-specific risk factors, such as a pre-existing chronic pain condition or pain elsewhere, were predictive factors. In prospective studies, the low incidence of persistent pain at 6 and 12 months make the analysis of risk factors unreliable.