No, pain experienced by a woman at the time of giving birth is not 57 dol - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 9, 2022
A social media post claims women while giving birth to a child experience 57 del unit of pain (Labor), similar to 20 bones simultaneously getting fractured. This is being widely shared across. The post further adds that a man dies when he experiences pain of 45 del at once. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Women while giving birth experiences 57 del unit of pain (Labor), similar to 20 bones simultaneously getting fractured.
Fact: According to a research paper published in 1948, ‘dol’ is the unit to measure pain. Further ‘dol scale’ quantifies the pain levels. The maximum pain level one can experience using the scale stands at 10.5. This proves that pain values mentioned in the post, in regard to men and women are unlikely, as they are beyond the maximum level on dol scale. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Firstly, there is no unit with the name ‘Del’ to measure pain. According to a 1948 paper on the study of pain, ‘dol’ is the unit to measure pain and not del. ‘Dol is the term used to denote the unit of painfulness and has a value of approximately one-tenth the intensity of the maximal pain’, reported the paper. Even the US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, published the same paper on its website.
Further “dol scale” was developed that quantified pain levels using a dolorimeter, an instrument used to measure pain intensity. Based on research published in this paper, 10.5 is the maximum amount of pain which can be experienced. This proves that pain values mentioned in the post, in regard to men and women are unlikely, as they are beyond the maximum level on the dol scale.
Later on, Harvard Medical School also developed a 10 point scale to gauge the severity of pain. This scale was designed to help nurses and doctors better document and monitor how much pain one was experiencing and thereby offer the right treatment. As even this scale gauges pain on a scale of 0-10, the values mentioned in the post are not likely related to this scale.
To sum it up, pain experienced by a woman at the time of giving birth is not 57 dol.