There is no doubt, that surgery is very often the beginning of a chronic pain disorder. C-section is a worldwide performed operation with increasing trend in the developed countries .This prospective cohort study evaluated the incidence of persistent pain after childbirth in respect of the pain status before childbirth and the modus of delivery.

There are different variables that may influence the occurrence of chronic pain after childbirth. One of these could be c- section , pain status before childbirth or other psychological factors like fear of birth, irrational cognitive beliefs about delivery and perinatal complications. The pain status (intensity and location), demographic data, anesthesiological details and data about the circumstances of birth are evaluated by structured interview during pregnancy and 3 month and 12 moth after childbirth. The pregnant women received an individual code for access to the survey on the website of the study. The recruitment takes placed in doctors or midwifes office and by advertising. The commuting area was the city of Tuebingen (Germany). Women who feel uncomfortable with the media based survey supplied a written form. Study population is planned with 500 participants. The Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Applied Biometry support the statistical analysis.

Inclusion Criteria:

• age of consent
• must be german-speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

- no written consent

pregnant women living in the city of Tuebingen and Stuttgart or the area surrounding