A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Perineal Massage on Labour Outcome among Primi mothers at selected Hospital, Erode

Background: Child birth is a painful and stressful event in a woman's life. Pregnant women commonly worry about pain during labour and birth. Labour pain is considered as one of the most intense forms of pain. Psychological challenge such as anxiety can contribute towards women’s perception of pain and may also affect their labor and birth experience. There are modern many non-invasive methods to relieve pain during childbirth. Among these methods is aromatherapy which is the most popular complementary therapy during child birth. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the effect of aromatherapy massage using lavender oil on the level of pain and anxiety during labor among primi gravida women. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of perineal massage on labour outcome among primigravida mothers in both the groups. Design: The research design selected for the present study was true experimental design where posttests only with control group design. Setting: The study was conducted in private maternity hospital, Erode district. Sample: The sample consisted of 30 (15 control and 15 experimental group) primi mothers attending antenatal OPD in private maternity Hospital, Erode District, were selected by simple random technique. Data collection procedure: The data were collected for 4 weeks in the month of June 2021.From both group the personal data were collected and to the experimental group external perineal massage was taught to the primi mother by demonstration. Post test was conducted for both control and experimental group with maternal outcomes observational rating scale while mother was admitted in labour ward with pain and assessed labour outcome. Results: The findings revealed that after the perineal massage the ongoing assessment tool to evaluate maternal outcome was fair and more effective during labour among the primi mothers in experimental group. In both control and experimental group there was no significant association between maternal outcome and demographic variables such as age, education, occupation, income per month, type of family, living area and previous source of information. Conclusion: The perineal massage was more effective in improving maternal outcome during labour among the primi mothers in experimental group.