Heat Application to the Sacral Region and Pain Level During the First Stage of Labor

Istanbul Demiroglu Bilim University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Labor Pain; Heat Exposure; Apgar Score; Duration of Labor

Treatments: Other: heat application

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06297031

2020/20

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of hot application applied to the sacral region during first stage of labor on women's pain level and labor process.

Full description

It is stated that the pain experienced during labor, which is a physiological process, creates stress and anxiety in women and increases the risk of maternal and neonatal complications. Therefore, keeping labor pain under control is important from an obstetrical perspective. Pain experienced during labor is caused by dilatation of the cervix and uterine contractions, and occurs in different regions at each stage of labor. Due to the descent of the fetal head into the pelvis and the pressure it puts on the lumbosacral plexus, the mother feels pain in her back, waist, legs and hips, especially in the first stage of labor. Although pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods are used in the management of labor pain, they have disadvantages such as experiencing drug-related side effects due to pharmacological methods, causing undesirable effects in the woman and the fetus, the woman not being able to actively participate in the labor and not being able to remember what happened during labor.

Enrollment: 134 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 40 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Women were over 18 years of age
• Primipara
• Volunteered to participate in the study
• Were in the latent phase of labor (cervical dilatation 1-2 cm)
• Had a single fetus in vertex presentation
• Had no history of pregnancy complications
• Had not undergone any intervention in the sacral region were included in the study

Exclusion criteria

• Applied pharmacological pain control methods in the first stage of labor
• Had a cesarean section decision at any stage

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

134 participants in 2 patient groups

heat application

Experimental group

Description:

women in the intervention group were treated with hot water application to the sacral region during the first stage of labor. When the cervical dilatation was 3-4 cm, 5-6 cm and 7-8 cm, heat application was applied a total of 3 times.

Treatment:

Other: heat application

no heat application

No Intervention group

Description:

No treatment was performed on women in the control group during the study. In the clinic, women's cervical dilatation is routinely checked by the midwife every 2-3 hours, and the progress of labor is monitored by fetal heart rate and fetal monitoring