A prospective study of self-efficacy expectancies and labour pain

Thirty-seven nulliparous women recruited from Lamaze classes rated their self-efficacy to use the pain coping strategies taught in these classes as well as the importance and anticipated outcome of using these strategies. Prior to labour, these ratings were obtained for each phase - early, active, and transitional - of the first stage of labour. During labour, women completed three pain inventories, one for each phase, with the help of their labour partner. Prelabour ratings indicated that women's certainty of their ability to use coping strategies decreased as they anticipated each successive phase of the first stage of labour. Self-efficacy expectancies for the early and active phases of the first stage of labour predicted approximately 20% of the variance in pain levels for these phases, respectively. However, self-efficacy expectancies did not predict levels of transitional labour pain. After accounting for self-efficacy expectancies, importance and outcome ratings did not explain additional variance in pain levels for any phase of the first stage of labour.While higher self-efficacy ratings predicted lower levels of pain in early and active labour, it is unclear why women's beliefs in their ability to use coping strategies did not explain variance in transitional pain levels.