A Comparative Study on the Effects of B Massage and Entonox Gas on Pain Severity and Some Outcomes During Childbirth in Nulliparous Women: A Randomized Clinical Trial

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Reducing the intensity of labor pain is a way encouraging to select vaginal The present study aimed to compare the effects of B massage and Entonox gas on pain severity during childbirth. This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 90 nulliparous women randomly selected from among those who were admitted for childbirth in Shahrivar Hospital of Saveh, Iran, from 6 th August, 2015 to 13 th April, 2016. Women with a gestational age of 37-42 weeks, a dilatation of 4-5 cm, and singleton pregnancy were selected. They were randomly divided into three groups as B massage, Entonox and control. The severity of pain was measured before the intervention and every 45 minutes after the first intervention using a visual analog scale. The data were analyzed by using chi-square, Tukey, Scheffe, Cramer and Spearman’s correlation tests in SPSS software. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the three groups concerning their gestational age and their other demographic characteristics. ANOVA test showed lower pain intensity at 45, 90, 135, 180 and 225 minutes after the first intervention in the B massage group (p<0.001). Pain intensity was significantly lower in the massage group in the second stage of labor compared to the other two groups (F3=15.61, df=2, p<0.001). Chi-square test showed that cesarean section was more common in the Entonox group (F3=13.123, p<0.001), post-partum bleeding was more in the B massage group (F3=8.535, p=0.014) and newborn resuscitation was more frequently applied in the Entonox group (F3=11.118, p=0.025). CONCLUSION: This study showed that B massage can reduce the intensity of labor pain but it increases post-partum bleeding and further studies on this type of massage are needed.