The Effects of Effleurage Massage and Abdominal Lifting Massage to Reduce Pain in the First Stage of Labor Process

Abstract

Background: Labor is often associated with pain, especially during the first stage. Good labor management is shown by the labor process that does not last too long and is accompanied by a tolerable level of pain. One of the effective methods in dealing with labor pain is to provide non-pharmacological actions, such as performing effleurage massage and abdominal lifting massage which are used to overcome labor pain at the time of the first stage and active phase because it causes a relaxation reaction. Objective: The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of effleurage massage and abdominal lifting massage to reduce pain in the first stage of labor process in the independent midwife clinics in South Lampung Regency, Indonesia. Method: The type of research used was experimental research. The research design was true experimental with pre and post-test only design. The population in this study were all mothers who were in the first stage of normal labor in the independent midwife clinics in South Lampung Regency. Sixty samples were divided into 3 groups where 20 respondents received intervention on massage effleurage, 20 respondents received intervention on abdominal lifting massage, and the rest were the control group. The data obtained were then analyzed using the Wilcoxon, Mann Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallistests. Result: The results showed that the highest reduction in the average pain scale of the labor process was in the effleurage massage treatment, namely from the pain scale of 5.55 to 3.75. Based on the results of the Kruskal-Wallis test, the obtained α was 0.000. This means that there was a significant difference between effleurage massage compared to abdominal lifting massage in reducing pain in the first stage of the labor process. Conclusion: Effleurage massage treatment was more effective in reducing pain in the first stage of the labor process.