[AFTER- 7.]
1. A pain that follows later.
a. 1556. Cranmer, Wks., II. 182. Although it be pardoned, yet after-pains thereof continue so long as we live.
a. 1624. Sir N. Breton, in Farr’s S. P. (1845), I. 196. That bitter smart That inward breeds of pleasures after-paine.
2. esp. (in pl.) The pains that follow childbirth. Also fig.
1667. Decay of Chr. Piety, v. § 11. 229. The throes and after-pains of conscience when sin is brought forth.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., After-pains are pains felt in the loin, the groin, etc. after the birth.
1754–64. Smellie, Midwifery, I. 400. Women in the first child seldom have after-pains.
1857. Bullock, trans. Cazeaux’s Midwifery, 491. The after-pains are occasioned by the contraction of the womb.
