A Quasi Experimental Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Foot Massage on Incisional pain and sleep pattern among Post Caesarean Mothers admitted in selected hospitals, Hoshiarpur, Punjab

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess effectiveness of foot massage on incisional pain and sleep pattern among post caesarean mothers. Background: Cesarean section (C.S) is the birth of fetus through a trans-abdominal incision in the uterus. Persistent post-operative pain is a well- known consequence of caesarean section. Some studies have found alternative methods such as acuapressure, aromatherapy and massage therapy to be fairly effective for treatment of post caesarean pain and improve the quality of sleep pattern. Foot massage appears to be effective, in expensive, low risk, flexible and easily applied. So, foot massage was used to assess its effect on incisional pain and sleep pattern among post caesarean mothers. Design: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group research design was used with non-probability purposive sampling technique to selected sample. Material and Methods: Sample of 60 post caesarean mothers from selected hospitals, 30 each in experimental group and control group were selected. Assessment of level of incisional pain was done by using standardized numerical pain rating scale whereas assessment of sleep pattern was done by using modified Groningen sleep quality index scale. Analysis was done by using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings: Findings showed that in experimental group, 93.24% post caesarean mothers had mild level of pain and 6.66% had moderate level of incisional pain. Whereas in control group, 40% had mild level of pain and 60% had moderate level of pain. On the other hand, 93.33 % post caesarean mothers had good sleep and 6.66% had poor quality of sleep pattern. Whereas in control group 100% post caesarean mothers had poor sleep pattern. Conclusion: Thus, the study concluded that the difference between mean pretest and posttest score was found statistically significant at p < 0.05 level in experimental group. Hence, research hypothesis was accepted and it revealed that there was impact of foot massage among post caesarean mothers in experimental group.