The role of the obstetric nurse: Non-invasive care technologies and pain relief in childbirth

Abstract

This article aims to describe the non-invasive care technologies used by obstetric nurses in the process of pain relief in the parturitive process. This is a narrative review of the literature carried out between January 2022 and October 2023. A search was conducted for articles published in the last 05 years in the Virtual Health Library (VHL). The interest in developing this work arose from the reflection on the role of the obstetric nurse and the importance of non-invasive technologies used in the parturitive process. The literature review, as a fundamental step for the study, allowed us to gather relevant theoretical information on the subject. The researched literature points to the technologies used by obstetric nurses, favoring the participation of women in the parturition process. The use of these technologies has marked the distinction of the obstetric nurse's practice in the obstetric field, because of which the role of the obstetric nurse in the qualification of care is evidenced, based on the principles of humanization and with the use, as a work tool, of non-invasive care technologies in the parturition process. In this sense, the woman's choice is respected and her protagonism in labor and birth is favored. Therefore, in the technologies used by these professionals, it is characterized by care based on the physiology and exercise of the woman's autonomy, rescuing childbirth as a physiological process.