The accuracy of memory for labor pain context and quality was examined in 33 women who had given birth 3-4 years previously, utilizing the McGill Pain Questionnaire and unstructured recollections of childbirth events. Subjects displayed very good memory for the context of labor pain but poor memory for its quality. In order to test whether recall was influenced by semantic information a second study investigated the extent and type of knowledge which exists about the nature of labor pain amongst 33 women who had never given birth. The description of labor pain provided by nuliparous women was found to be similar in terms of category selection and descriptors to that of parous women. This suggests that women have available semantic information about labor pain which may influence their pain recall or even their assessment of a pain experience.