BACKGROUND Many women need some kind of analgesic treatment to relieve pain during childbirth. The objective of our study was to compare the effect of acupuncture with transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) and traditional analgesics for pain relief and relaxation during delivery with respect to pain intensity, birth experience, and obstetric outcome. METHODS A randomized controlled...

BACKGROUND Hands-and-knees positioning during labor has been recommended on the theory that gravity and buoyancy may promote fetal head rotation to the anterior position and reduce persistent back pain. A Cochrane review found insufficient evidence to support the effectiveness of this intervention during labor. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of maternal hands-and-knees pos...

OBJECTIVE To study the effectiveness of intracutaneous injections of sterile water in relieving low back pain during labor in Thai women. STUDY DESIGN Randomized controlled trial. SETTING Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Taksin Hospital, Bangkok. MATERIAL AND METHOD Fifty pregnant women at term, requiring pain relief for severe low back pain during the first stage of labor. The wo...

The present study was aimed to assess the relationship between pain expectation before labour, labour pain and pain perception after the labour. Pregnant women were asked to rate their pain level on a standard continuous visual analogue scale at various time points. Pain expectancy (PE), labour pain (LP) and postpartum pain perception (PPP) scores were calculated. The final study group was comp...

The active phase of first stage labor is generally defined as the period between 3 cm to 4 cm to complete cervical dilatation, in the presence of regular uterine contractions. Most women will experience this portion of labor within hospital obstetric units, where care commonly features restriction to bed, electronic fetal monitoring, early treatment of "slow" labors, and few pain management opt...