Impact of Doula sand Acupressure during laboron Labor Pain Intensity and Infant’s Apgar Score

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Delivery is considered as one of the most painful experiences of women's life. There fore continuous labor support offers multiple benefits for mothers and infants. The present study aimed to compare the effects of maternal supportive care and acupressure (at LI4 a cupoint) during labor on labor pain intensity, and infant's Apgar score. Methods: Parturient women (n=150) with low-risk pregnancy (with singleton pregnancies in the active phase of spontaneous labor, without any medical or obstetric problems, were enrolled in this single-blinded, randomized, clinical trial)were randomly divided into supportive care(Doulas)group, LI4 acupressure group, and control group each containing 50 subjects in which no pharmacological or non-pharmacological methods of pain relief were used. Pain intensity was measured by visual analog scale before and after the intervention in the first stage of labor. Pressure or touch was applied for 30 minutes during uterine contractions. The data were collected using a questionnaire including demographic and pregnancy characteristics. Then, the data were analyzed using Chi-square test and one-way ANOVA. Results: The difference in the pain scores between Doulas, the acupressure and control group was statistically significant (p<0.001). Moreover, the frequency of Apgar score>8 in the first and 5 th minutes was higher in the supportive care and acupressure groups compared to the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). Conclusion and recommendation: Continuous support and acupressure are an effective, non-invasive, and easily applicable technique to reduce labor pain and could reduce the length of labor stages and. Therefore, these methods, as effective nonpharmacological strategies, can be introduced to the medical staff to improve the delivery outcomes.

Reduce the Intensity of Labor Pain With Aqupressure

“…Maternal supportive care and acupressure during labor reduce pain intensity and improve labor outcomes (Mohamed Ali, et.al, 2017). A Cupressure on the combination of BL32 (Ciliao) and LI4 (Hegu) points with BL32 (Ciliao) and SP6 (Sanyinjiao) points is effective in reducing the intensity of labor pain so that it can be used as an alternative nonpharmacological intervention in reducing labor pain intensity.…”