Acupressure and Comfort at Childbirth

Serap Ozturk Altinayak129 enrolled

Overview

Aims: Non-pharmacological methods employed for management labor pain also help pregnant women to cope with labor pain and increase their childbirth comfort. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of cold and hot acupressure applications, applied to the acupressure point LI4 of primiparous women during labor, on their childbirth comfort. Methods: This study was designed a randomized controlled experimental study. The sample consisted of 129 healthy pregnant women including 44 pregnant women in the hot acupressure group, 44 pregnant women in the cold acupressure group, and 41 pregnant women in the control group. The "Personal Information Form", the "Labor Monitoring Form", the "Visual Analog Scale", and the "Childbirth Comfort Questionnaire" were all used to gather the data.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

129

Conditions

Pain, Labor

Interventions

For the cold acupressure application, the researchers prepared pouches that were 3 cm long, 2 cm wide, and 1 cm high (3x2x1cm), and filled with cherry seeds - to retain heat for a longer time, hence the preference. Next, they fixed rubber bands to the pouches so that they stayed in place on the participants' hands during acupressure, and retain consistent pressure throughout. Lastly, the cold acupressure pouches were kept in a freezer for 40 minutes.

Warm AcupressureOTHER

For the warm acupressure application, the researchers prepared pouches that were 3 cm long, 2 cm wide, and 1 cm high (3x2x1cm), and filled with cherry seeds - to retain heat for a longer time, hence the preference. Next, they fixed rubber bands to the pouches so that they stayed in place on the participants' hands during acupressure, and retain consistent pressure throughout. Lastly, the warm acupressure pouches were heated in a microwave at 600 W for one minute.

Eligibility

Sex: FEMALEMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 45 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Being a primipara * Having intact membranes * No skin diseases (such as urticaria...), * No use of narcotic drugs * Having a term pregnancy * Having a single fetus at vertex position * Planning to have vaginal delivery * Having contractions and ongoing regular augmentation * Having recent augmentation starting periods * Being in the latent phase (0-3 cm dilatation) * Having no history of high-risk pregnancy * Not using analgesic drugs to reduce pain during delivery * Having no systemic and neurologic diseases * Having no contraction anomaly (hypotonic or hypertonic contractions) Exclusion Criteria: • Having any of the above criteria

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Comfort

Childbirth Comfort Questionnaire (CCQ); Each item ranks between 1 and 5 points: 1=Strongly disagree, 2=Mostly disagree, 3=Partially agree, 4=Mostly agree, and 5=Completely agree. Thus, the lowest and highest scores are 9 and 45 points, respectively. The higher the score one earns, the more comfortable they are; the lower the score, the exact opposite

Time frame: through study completion, an average of 1month

Secondary Outcomes

Labor pain

Visual Analog Scale (VAS); It is a 10-cm one-dimensional ruler; written on one end is "no pain"; on the other is "worst pain." For the purpose of this study, the researchers used VAS vertically in this study, in line with the recommendations of other studies, who suggest that individuals understand VAS better when applied vertically.