Effect of Acupressure on Non-stress Test (NST) Results: A Randomized-Controlled Trial Study

BackgroundPregnancy and delivery are among the most stressful events in women’s life . Breech presentation is defined as a fetus in a longitudinal lie with the buttocks or feet closest to the cervix. This occurs in 3-4% of all deliveries.The risk for perinatal mortality was 1 in 300 for planned breech deliveries.Some conventional non-surgical therapies for breech presentation are available. acupoint (BL67) stimulations are commonly used for the correction of breech presentation. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of acupressure on fetal wellbeing test results.MethodThis study is a clinical trialthat was conducted in one group and the two-steps.Participantswere pregnant women (primigravida) who were 35 to 18 years that refer to Shahid Beheshti hospital in Isfahan in 2013 to receive routine prenatal care.The 32 pregnant women (32-36 weeks) were randomly selected.They were stimulated immediately after the first Non stress test and before the second test.The researchers’ evaluated and analyzed variables using SPSS software version 20.FindingsMean (SD) age of the subjects was 24/7±2/8 and 93/8% of them was housekeeper. The frequency of reactive Non Stress Test (NST) was same before and after stimulation. The mean time of the tests’ result was decreased after stimulation significantly ( p-value=0.048). ConclusionsAlthough fetal non-stress test result wasn’t influenced by acupressure but this intervention led to shorter testing time to achieve results. In other words, after the intervention, the time it takes to reach a reactive fetal non-stress test is about 2/7 minutes less than the time without intervention.