Effect of the labour roadmap on anxiety, labour pain, sense of control, and gestational outcomes in primiparas

Abstract

Background and purposeThe pain and uncertainty of the labour process can lead to anxiety. Birth ball exercises are one of the pain relief methods for the labour process. This study aimed to explore the outcomes of the use of the labour roadmap with birth balls in primiparas. Materials and methodsThis randomized controlled trial involved Chinese women between the gestational ages of 37–42 weeks who were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group. The outcomes of labour pain, anxiety, and self-control were collected using the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire, visual analogue scale-anxiety, and Labor Agentry Scale, respectively. ResultsThe study found improvements in anxiety, pain, and self-control (P < 0.05), as well as the duration of the first stage of labour (P < 0.05) in the intervention group, but there were no significant differences in the duration of the second and third stages of labour, volume of bleeding, or the 1-min Apgar score between the two groups (P = 0.09, 0.07, 0.06, 0.63, respectively). ConclusionThe labour roadmap was effective for improving self-control, reducing pain and anxiety during labour, and accelerating the first stage of labour.