Introduction
pain
EVENT
The health and well-being of mother and child during pregnancy and childbirth are public health concerns because both of them have special needs, which cannot be catered to by general health services.
Childbirth is a life-transforming intense event to a woman and her family.
A systematic review on childbirth education reports that childbirth preparation helps in building self-esteem, self-confidence and control, but weakly validates impact on reducing interventions during labour.
A variety of non-pharmacological techniques such as relaxation, breathing techniques, positioning/movement, massage, hydrotherapy, hot/cold therapy, music, guided imagery, acupressure, and aromatherapy are available to women in labour. Women are encouraged to employ any of these techniques, as they are non-invasive and appear to be safe for mother and baby.Breathing is one of the simple, cost-effective non-pharmacological techniques, which connects the mind and the body, combination of controlled breathing and conscious relaxation are power-packed tools for labour.
A clinical trial conducted on pregnant women to assess the efficacy of supervised antenatal yoga program, which included breathing patterns on perceived maternal labour pain and birth outcomes reported that women experienced lower pain intensity, required decreased need for labour induction, showed lower rates of caesarean deliveries and experienced a shorter duration of second as well as the third stage of labour.
The Cochrane Systematic Review on the effectiveness of the non-pharmacological intervention on pain management for labour, reports relaxation, massage acupuncture, and hydrotherapy helped in the management of labour with few side effects; however, more exploration is needed to establish the efficacy of these techniques.
In response to the need to establish a strong evidence base for non-pharmacological intervention, we undertook a randomized controlled trial to test the hypothesis that women who participated in an antepartum breathing exercise program, in addition to usual antenatal care, would experience the spontaneous onset of true labour, spontaneous vaginal birth, shorter duration of labour, and lesser demand for augmentation of labour than antenatal women who receive standard antenatal care alone.