Effectiveness of birthing ball upon labour pain and coping in primiparturient women

An Experimental Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Birthing ball upon Labour pain and Coping during First Stage of Labour in Primiparturient Women at Andhra Mahila Sabha Hospital, Chennai. OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the level of labour pain, coping and feto-maternal parameters during the first stage of labour before and after use of birthing ball in the control and experimental group of primiparturient women. 2. To assess the effectiveness of birthing ball by comparing the level of pain, coping and feto-maternal parameters during first stage of labour before and after use of birthing ball in the control and experimental group of primiparturient women. 3. To determine the level of satisfaction upon use of birthing ball in experimental group of primiparturient women. 4. To find the association between the selected demographical variables and the level of pain and coping during first stage of labour before and after use of birthing ball in the control and experimental group of primiparturient women. 5. To find the association between the selected obstetrical variables and the level of pain and coping during first stage of labour before and after use of birthing ball in the control and experimental group of primiparturient women. The conceptual framework setup for the study is the model of Modified Wiedenbach’s helping art of clinical nursing theory. The variables of the study were birthing ball and labour pain. Null hypothesis were formulated. An extensive review of literature was made based on the opinions of the experts. An experimental study of pre-test and post-test design was used. The study included 60 Primiparturient mothers who were selected by systematic random sampling. The study was conducted at Andhra Mahila Sabha Hospital, Chennai. Demographic variable proforma, obstetric variable proforma, Numerical pain intensity scale, Pain Coping Scale, Rating Scale on Satisfaction of birthing ball and modified WHO Partogram were the various tools used by the researcher. The validity was obtained from various experts and reliability was established. The main study was conducted after the pilot study. The level of labour pain, coping and feto-maternal parameters were assessed for the control and experimental group of primiparturient womens. The birthing ball was provided for 15 minutes in the interval of 2cm, 4cm, 6cm cervical dilatation for the experimental group. Then the level of labour pain, coping and feto-maternal parameters were assessed again for both the groups. The level of satisfaction on use of birthing ball was assessed among the experimental group of primiparturient women after the labour. The data obtained were analyzed using Descriptive and inferential statistics. MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY: All the women were home makers (100%, 100%), didn’t received previous knowledge regarding birthing ball (100%, 100%) and majority of the women were homogenously distributed between the age group of 21-25 years (70%, 60%) had completed their secondary education (60%, 70%) with monthly income of 5000-7000 rupees (70%, 50%) and living in urban (50%, 60%) in the control and experimental group respectively. • All the women had more than 8 ante natal visits (100%, 100%), with none receiving any pain management during labour (100%, 100%), didn’t developed any fetal and maternal complications during labour (100%, 100%) with the APGAR score of the new born (100%, 100%) and majority of the women were between the gestational age of 39-40 weeks (70%, 70%) under gone normal vaginal delivery (70%, 90%) with duration of first stage labour 9-10 hours (60%, 70%) and with the duration of second stage of labour 51-60 minutes (70%, 90%) in control and experimental group respectively. • The mean and standard deviation of level of labour pain was higher after therapy (M=5.8, S.D=0.63) when compared with labour pain before therapy (M=5, S.D=0.44) in the control group, where as the mean and standard deviation of the level of labour pain was lower after therapy (M=5, S.D= 0.6) when compared with labour pain before therapy (M=6.1, S.D=0.5) in the experimental group. This was statistically proven at p<0.01 level of confidence. Hence the null hypothesis Ho1 was rejected. • The mean and standard deviation of coping level in the control group was lower after therapy (M=2, S.D=0.87) than before therapy (M=4.2, S.D=0.84) and the mean and standard deviation of coping level in the experimental group was higher after therapy (M=4.3, S.D=0.69) compared to before therapy (M=3.3, S.D=0.60) which was significant at p<0.05 level, thus the null hypotheses H01 was rejected. • The mean and standard deviation of the frequency of uterine contraction in the experimental group was lower after therapy (M=3.9, S.D=0.11) when compared to before therapy (M=2.5, S.D=0.50) and uterine contraction was higher after therapy (M=4, S.D=1.50) compared to before therapy (M=3, SD=0.70) at p