Acupressure and Comfort at Childbirth

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

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 Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Pain, Labor
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Cold Acupressure; Other: Warm Acupressure

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 129
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey
  • Tokat, Turkey
    • Health Research and Training Hospital of Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 45 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Cold Acupressure Group; Personal information form (PIF ) , Labor Monitoring Form (LMF), Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and Childbirth Comfort Questionnaire (CCQ) as pre-test during the latent phase before going about the cold acupressure. Next, she applied the cold acupressure pouches on the respective cold group on their LI 4 point for ten minutes, during the active and transition phases. The application was then suspended for one hour, and then repeated three more times. Last, posttest took place. Cold group was given VAS and CCQ during transition phase of dilation between contractions. The researchers then filled out LMF after cold group to monitor how they were feeling.	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.
Experimental: Warm Acupressure Group; PIF, LMF, VAS, and CCQ as pre-test during the latent phase before going about the warm acupressure. Next, she applied the warm acupressure pouches on the respective warm groups on their LI 4 point for ten minutes, during the active and transition phases. The application was then suspended for one hour, and then repeated three more times. Last, posttest took place. Warm group was given VAS and CCQ during transition phase of dilation between contractions. The researchers then filled out LMF after warm group to monitor how they were feeling.	Other: 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.
No Intervention: Control Group; The researcher ran PIF, LMF, VAS, and CCQ as pre-test during the latent phase. No intervention was applied to the control group. Last, posttest took place. Control group was given VAS and CCQ during transition phase of dilation between contractions. The researchers then filled out LMF after warm group to monitor how they were feeling.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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 Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Serap Ozturk Altinayak

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 24, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 31, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): February 21, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 29, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 2, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): June 7, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 7, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 2, 2022
• Last Verified: June 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Pain, Labor, Comfort
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Labor Pain
• Other Study ID Numbers: 21.05.2020-15

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No