The Efficacy of Massage Therapy and Breathing Techniques on Pain Intensity and Physiological Responses to Labor Pain

There are many non-pharmacological methods for relieving labor pain.the preferable method is certainly the one that is effective and harmless. therefore, wedecided to compare the efficacy of massage therapy and breathing techniques on painintensity, physiological responses to labor pain, labor type and the outcomes. methods:a quasi-experimental study was conducted in alzahra hospital in tabriz. at first, 4oprimigravidas, satisfying the inclusion criteria, were selected and randomly divided intotwo groups of massage 1 (m1) and breathing 1 (b1). then, another 42 mothers wereselected based on the same criteria and randomly divided into two groups of massage 2(m2) and breathing 2 (b2). an educated researcher assistant (era) provided practicaltraining to (b1 and b2 groups) by holding one educational session. as the labor processstarted, the era, who was present at the labor room, repeated the breathing technique for b1 and b2 groups. the breathing groups employed the techniques during the first orsecond stage of labor at 4, 6, 8 and 10 centimeter of dilatation for 30 minutes. the intensity of pain was measured by a numerical rating scale (nrs) 30 minutes after determining dilatation. the physiological responses were evaluated at the same time intervals.the era performed massaging at the same dilatations for m1 and m2 groups. the datawas collected similarly. labor progression was evaluated by the partograph.results: massage at 4 and 6 cm dilatations and breathing at most dilatations decreasedpain scores significantly. the mean difference of pain intensity and physiological responses to pain was not significant between the massaging and breathing groups at mostdilatations. conclusion: based on the findings of this research, providing the possibilityof choosing one or both methods for labor pain relief and decreasing cesarean sectionrate is suggested.