Effectiveness of Back Massage in the First Stage of Labour among Women Admitted in the Selected Hospital

Introduction: Pregnant women commonly worry about the pain they will experience during labour and childbirth and how they will react to deal with that pain. Even though the physiological concept is same for all the labour pain, the pain perception level by each pregnant lady is different. Keeping this in mind, the author has conducted a study to assess the effectiveness of back massage in the first stage of labour among women admitted in the selected hospital of Pune City. Material and Methods: A Quasi Experimental study was conducted to determine the effect of back massage on back pain during the first stage of labour among women admitted in the selected hospitals of Pune city. Data were collected from 30 women in the first stage of labour meeting the sampling criteria admitted in the three different hospitals. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: Using Investigator Observation pain scale shows, the mean of paired observations decreased from 0.4667 on first and second observation to .1333 on second and third observation in experimental group. The difference is significant at p less than 0.05 on observation indicating that back massage was effective in reducing the back pain. Therefore, there is a significant reduction in intensity of back pain after back massage in experimental group. The mean of paired observations increased in control group. Therefore all the three observation indicates that there is a significant increase in intensity of back pain without massage in control group. Conclusion: Back massage is a cost effective non-pharmacological treatment for significant reduction in intensity of back pain during the first stage of labour.