The effect of therapeutic touch on pain and comfort after caesarean section

The Effect of Therapeutic Touch on Pain and Comfort After Caesarean Section The research was conducted in a randomized controlled, experimental type to determine on women the effect of therapeutic touch on pain and comfort levels after cesarean section. The research was conducted with women who gave birth by cesarean section in the Gynecology Service at Hatay Dörtyol State Hospital between September 2023 and November 2023. Personal Information Form, Visual Pain Scale to evaluate pain, and Postpartum Comfort Scale to evaluate comfort were used to collect data. Analyzes were performed with IBM SPSS V25 Software and R Studio. When G*Power analysis was performed, the sample size was calculated as 90 women (45 experimental, 45 control). Data were analyzed by number, percentage, t test and ANOVA. The critical significance value was taken as p<0.05. In the study, when the comparison results between groups in VAS measurements were examined, it was determined that there was a statistically significant difference in the pre-test and post-test results of the experimental and control groups, but this difference was greater in the experimental group. In the experimental group after the second TD, the post-test results in all measurements regarding the Postpartum Comfort Scale and its sub-dimensions were determined to be significantly higher than the pre-test results. In the control group, no significant difference was observed in the sociocultural comfort sub-dimension. Therapeutic touch was found to reduce pain levels and increase comfort levels after cesarean section. Keywords: Pain, Postpartum Period, Midwifery, Comfort, Therapeutic Touch