Susan Burton

And the study found a couple of really important things.

So it found that 8% of patients experience significant pain.

So there are 1.2 million C-sections in the U.S.

a year.

So 8% means that 100,000 women a year experience significant pain.

And by significant pain, we mean what exactly?

So as the study defined it, this was when women report a pain score of 6 or above.

Out of 10.

Correct.

Correct.

and actually the study's lead author, his name is James O'Carroll, he told me that the incidence of pain, that 8% number, that was sort of what he expected.

But what was surprising to him was the level of pain reported.

I saw the research presented at a medical conference, and one of the really striking pieces of it is this kind of word cloud that the researchers made

The word cloud shows the words that women used to describe the pain they felt.

So some of those words, searing, blinding, wretched, tearing, cramping, grueling, radiating, vicious, cruel, drilling, smarting.

Yeah, I know.

And that was a feeling that I had when I first started looking into this.

So one of the other really important findings is that pain differed depending on the kind of anesthetic technique that was performed.

So what I mean by that is like when you have a C-section, maybe you have an epidural, right?

We've talked about epidurals.