The effect of nursing support provided to primiparous pregnant women in labor on labor pain and delivery expectancy

This study employs a quasi-experimental and correlational design aiming at identifying the effect of the nursing support provided to primiparous pregnant women in labor (concentration, imagination, massage, sacral pressure, exercises of breathing, relaxation and strain) on labor pains and birth expectation. The population of the study consists of 102 pregnant women over the age of 18, 51 of them in treatment group and 51 of them in control group, who applied to Akşehir Public Hospital in Konya, Turkey between 15 February 2018 and 15 August 2018 for vaginal delivery and had the criteria of the study which were being primiparous, having dilatation of 3-7 cm, not having systemic disease and not having an indication of cesarean. The experimental group included pregnant women who received one-to-one nursing support in labor process and the pregnant women in the control group had received routine pregnancy care. The researcher trained the pregnant women in the experimental group on effective methods of coping with labor pains (concentration, dreaming, massage, sacral pressure, exercises of breathing, relaxation and strain), and they were applied with the pregnant women one-to-one by the researcher. No intervention was carried out with the pregnant women in the control group except for routine care in the delivery department. The data of the study were collected through Pregnant Diagnosis Form (App-2), Visual Analog Scale (VAS) (App-3), Post-natal Visual Analog Scale (VAS) (App-3), and WIJMA Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire Version B (App-4). The data were analyzed on SPSS 20.0 for Windows, frequency and percentage distribution, arithmetic means were calculated, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal- Wallis test and Spearman correlation analysis were performed. The statistical significance level was accepted as p<0,05 in the interpretation of the results. The socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics of the pregnant women in the study were similar. VAS1 was 6,02±1,393 in the experimental group and 6,43±1,153 in the control group. VAS2 was 0,92±0,821 in the experimental group and 1,31±1,029 in the control group. W-DEQ-B was found as 77,3922±14,913 in the experimental group and 117,156±23,999 in the control group. The results of the study showed that the pregnant women in the experimental group described their delivery more positively, and that the postpartum perceived pain and fear levels of pregnant women who received nursing support were lower than those who received standard care. Key words: labor pain, delivery expectancy, nurse, primiparous