Massage Therapy and Continuous Support as Effective and Safe Alternatives to Relieve Labor Pain

Abstract

Introduction: Pain relief during childbirth is a sensitive need for women. For this, epidural analgesia is mainly used. However, on certain occasions its use is unlikely, but in such a situation alternative methods can be used.

Objective: To determine the effectiveness and safety of massage therapy and continuous maternal support as alternative methods for pain relief in labor. Methods: An experimental investigation was carried out (pretest and posttest), with a study group in which a probabilistic and random sample of 207 pregnant women was selected, made up of an experimental group of 110 pregnant women and a control group of 97 pregnant women. They were treated in the obstetric services of Ciro Redondo García Artemisa General Teaching Hospital from 2021 to 2022. A visual analogue scale was designed to assess the relief and satisfaction of pregnant women. To control the homogeneity among the groups and their possible association, the Student t test or Mann-Whitney U test was used.

Results: Low level of knowledge on the topic was obtained (36.71%), the level of satisfaction was high and statistically significant in relation to pain relief with the combination of both methods and massage therapy.

Conclusions: The effectiveness of the use of alternative methods to relieve pain in the active phase of labor and the consequent maternal satisfaction was confirmed, as well as the visual analogue scale to measure pain.