BACKGROUND Many women would like to avoid pharmacological or invasive methods of pain management in labour and this may contribute towards the popularity of complementary methods of pain management. This review examined evidence supporting the use of acupuncture and acupressure for pain management in labour. OBJECTIVES To examine the effects of acupuncture and acupressure for pain management ...

Pain arising from the first stage of labour is carried through afferents which course through the paracervical plexus and hypogastric nerve, co-mingle with sympathetic efferents along the pararvertebral sympathetic chain and enter the spinal cord at the T10 to L1 dermatomes. Near the end of the first stage and during the remaining phases of labour there is also input from somatic efferents in t...

Labour is thought to be one of the most intense and painful experiences in a woman's life. Numerous studies using a Visual Analogue Scale invariably demonstrate that 20% of women in labour describe the pain as "unbearable" and 60% describe the pain as "very intense". Since the mid-1980s, continuous epidural analgesia during labour has been considered the gold standard of labour anaesthesia and ...

BACKGROUND Epidural analgesia is a central nerve block technique achieved by injection of a local anaesthetic close to the nerves that transmit pain and is widely used as a form of pain relief in labour. However, there are concerns regarding unintended adverse effects on the mother and infant. OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of all modalities of epidural analgesia (including combined -spinal...

HKJGOM 2008; 8 (1) Introduction Childbirth is one of the most painful experiences the human body can ever have. Some women are lucky when they have a relatively short, easy, and uncomplicated labour process, while others may experience long and agonising ordeals. The control of labour pain is the major concern in maternity care. Melzack1 found that many nulliparous women go into labour without ...

Labour has long been recognized as a very painful event. Efforts have therefore been made over the years, particularly in the developed world, to relief pain in labour. Unfortunately the same attention has not been given to obstetric analgesia in Africa because of the belief that Africans cope well with labour pains. However a recent study among Nigerian women have shown that most African women...

BACKGROUND Acupuncture is commonly used to reduce pain during labour despite contradictory results. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture with manual stimulation and acupuncture with combined manual and electrical stimulation (electro-acupuncture) compared with standard care in reducing labour pain. Our hypothesis was that both acupuncture stimulation techniques ...