J Korean Acad Womens Health Nurs.  1999 Jul;5(2):224-236.

A Study on the Effect of Doula's Roles including Therapeutic Touch on Labor and Delivery Process among Middle Aged Women

• Kim GJ
• Yoo EK

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to define the effects of the roles played by the Doulas : one group educated on the conventional Lamaze method known to have effects on birth pang during delivery process and the other group educated both on Lamaze and therapeutic touch. On the various factors of delivery, and thereby, provide for some basic data to develop an effective nursing intervention to relieve women of their birth pang. 136 mothers who were hospitalized in a general hospital from June 13, 1998 to May 13, 1998 to May 13, 1999 to deliver their first babies were sampled to be divided into control group, test group I and test group II and thus be subject to interviews and observations. As for the tool of study, melzack's(1975) 'pain scale', McCaffery's(1972) and Mcrachlan's(1974) 'pain expression scales' and Spielberger's (1975) 'anxiety scale' were used. The preparatory educational programs consisted of 5week Lamaze method and therapeutic touch. The research, design was quasi-experimental, non equivalent, posttest only control group design. The collected data were processed using the SPSS/PC statistics software for frequencies, means and one-way Anova as well as Tukey HSD and Scheffe test as post hoc for individual comparison. Moreover, chi-square test was used to test the differences between groups, while Pearson's correlation coefficients were analyzed to determine the correlations between anxiety and variables. The findings are as follows ; 1. The birth pain of the mothers delivering first babies scored in a subjective and objective pain scale; 1) There was a significant difference of subjective birth pain at 8~10cm opening of cervix between control group and two test groups. 2) There was no significant difference of objective birth pain as per opening of cervex among three groups in terms of sweating, facial movement, bodily posture and vocal changes. 2. There was no significant difference of trait anxiety among three groups. however, there was a significant difference of state anxiety during labor process between control group and two test groups. On the other hand, all the three groups showed a significantly lower level of anxiety during labor process than when they were carried to the hospital. 3. There was a significant difference of the time of total and first-stage labor among three groups, while there was a significant but small difference of the time elapsed from 8~10cm cervix open to the full among three groups. 4. Two test groups showed a higher frequency of natural deliveries than the control group. 5. Two test groups were subject to these drugs than the control group. In conclusion, it was found that the test group I and II showed a shorter delivery time than the control group, a higher frequency of natural delivery and a lesser use of anodyne or epidural. In particular, this study is significant to develop a nursing intervention service or a therapeutic touch which the nursing administrators can apply to their hospitals in marketing programs.

MeSH Terms

Administrative Personnel
Anxiety
Cervix Uteri
Doulas
Female
Hand
Hospitals, General
Humans
Marketing
Middle Aged*
Mothers
Nursing
Parturition
Posture
Sweat
Sweating
Therapeutic Touch*