Effectiveness of intermittent heat and cold application on labour pain and duration of labour among the intranatal mothers

Abstract

Childbirth is a natural biological process and the pain associated with it is also perceived as normal and natural. The primigravida women experience more intense pain during labour compared to multigravida. Experience of severe labour pain affects women's attitudes about vaginal birth. Heat and cold application on Intranatal mothers are very cheap and simple method and no need previous experience and it will have no side effects. The objectives of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of intermittent heat and cold application on labour pain and duration of labour among the experimental group mothers in comparison to control group mothers. This study was a quantitative approach and Quasi Experimental Design. The setting was in the Labour room and the sample size were 60 (30 in experimental group and 30 in control group) selected through Convenience Sampling Technique. The instruments used for data collection was a standardized Wong Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale and modified WHO Partograph and analysed by SPSS package 16.0 version. Results of research showed a significant decrease in the pain intensity in the intervention group during the first stage of labour and comparing two groups showed significantly difference (p<0.01). The calculated unpaired “t” value of first and second stage of labour 5.409 and 8.927 were found to be statistically significant at p<0.05 level. In conclusion, intermittent heat and cold application to the Intranatal mothers was found to be effective in reducing the level of labour pain and duration of first and second stage of labour among intranatal mothers.