Effect of nursing support given to pregnant women on labor pain and birth expectancy

Abstract

Nurses support pregnant women in coping with their labor pain. The aim of the quasi-experimental correlational design study was to identify the effect of the nursing support provided on labor pain and birth expectations to primiparous pregnant women. This study was carried out with an intervention (n=51) and control group (n=51) of primiparous women who were in their 37-41 weeks of pregnancy. In the first stage of labor (latent phase-active phase) (3-7 cm dilatation), the following procedures were applied respectively. Focusing, imagery, massage, sacral pressure, and breathing-relaxation-pushing exercises were explained to the pregnant women in the intervention group by the researcher and the exercises were practised one-on-one with them. The control group only received standard care in the ward without any intervention. The population of the study consisted of 102 pregnant women aged 18 years and above who had a vaginal delivery between February 15-August 15, 2018.The data of the study were collected using the Pregnancy Diagnosis Form, the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) (labor VAS1, post-natal VAS2) to determine the pain level of the participants, and WIJMA Labor Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire Version B to determine their expectations. SPSS 22.0 for Windows was used for the data analysis while frequency and percentage distribution, arithmetic means were calculated. Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman correlation analysis were performed. . The statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.05. The socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics of the pregnant women in the study were similar. VAS1 was 6.0 +/- 1.3 in the intervention group and 6.4 +/-.1 in the control group. VAS2 was 0.9 +/- 0,8 in the intervention group and 1.31 +/- 1,029 in the control group. Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire (W-DEQ) Version B was found to be7.3 +/- 14.9 in the intervention group and 117.1 +/- 23.9 in the control group. The study results showed that the pregnant women in the intervention group described their labor more positively, that the postpartum perceived pain, fear levels of pregnant women who received nursing support were lowerthanthosewhoreceivedstandardcare.