The effect of acupressure at the Sanyinjiao point on the labor pain relief and duration of labor in Turkish nulliparous women

Abstract

Aim of this study was to determine the effects of acupressure Sanyinjiao (Sp-6) point on the labour pain relief and duration of labor in Turkish nulliparous women. It was conducted at a private hospital from the Medipol Healthcare Group between April and September of 2014. Nulliparous women were randomly assigned either to the acupressure group (AG) or placebo groups (PG). In the initial session, a total of 100 of the participants were included, with 50 allocated to the AG and 50 to the PG. The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was used to measure the intensity of the nulliparous’ labor pain. Differences between groups after interventions were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0., which were compared by t-test or Mann-Whitney U-test according to the distribution of the variables. The mean age of the participants was 28.2±4.1 years. This study showed that acupressure at the Sp-6 point could reduce the pain intensity and shorten the duration of the active phase of labour when compared to PG. The duration of the second stage of labor and the rate of caesarean section did not show a significant difference between the groups. Findings from this study suggest that if acupressure is practiced by midwives, the experience of childbirth is facilitated.