Acupressure and Comfort at Childbirth

Pain, Labor Clinical Trial

Official title:

The Impact of Applying Various Forms of Acupressure on Women's Hand During Labor on Their Childbirth Comfort: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05407103
• Other study ID #: 21.05.2020-15
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: August 24, 2020
• Est. completion date: February 21, 2022

Study information

• Verified date: June 2022
• Source: Ondokuz Mayis University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 129
• Est. completion date: February 21, 2022
• Est. primary completion date: March 31, 2021
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Female
• Age group: 18 Years to 45 Years

Eligibility

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

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Labor Pain
• Pain, Labor

Intervention

Other:
• Cold Acupressure
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 Acupressure
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.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Turkey	Health Research and Training Hospital of Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University	Tokat

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Serap Ozturk Altinayak

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Turkey, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	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	through study completion, an average of 1month
Secondary	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.	through study completion, an average of 1month