Comparison of the Effects of Maternal Supportive Care and Acupressure (at BL32 Acupoint) on Labor Length and Infant’s Apgar Score

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Prolonged labor leads to increase of cesarean deliveries, reduction of fetal heart rate, and maternal as well as infantile complications. Therefore, many women tend to use pharmacological or non-pharmacological methods for reduction of labor length. The present study aimed to compare the effects of maternal supportive care and acupressure (at BL32 acupoint) on labor length and infant’s Apgar score.

METHODS: In this clinical trial, 150 women with low-risk pregnancy were randomly divided into supportive care, acupressure, and control groups each containing 50 subjects. The data were collected using a questionnaire including demographic and pregnancy characteristics. Then, the data were analyzed using Chi-square test and one-way ANOVA.

RESULTS: The mean length of the first and second stages of labor was respectively 157.0+29.5 and 58.9+25.8 minutes in the supportive care group, 161.7+37.3 and 56.1+31.4 minutes in the acupressure group, ad 281.0+79.8 and 128.4+44.9 minutes in the control group. The difference between the length of labor stages was significant in the three study groups (P<0.001). Moreover, the frequency of Apgar score>8 in the first and 5th minutes was higher in the supportive care and acupressure groups compared to the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.001).

CONCLUSION: Continuous support and acupressure could reduce the length of labor stages and increase the infants’ Apgar scores. Therefore, these methods, as effective non-pharmacological strategies, can be introduced to the medical staff to improve the delivery outcomes.