The effect of the two methods of massage and aromatherapy with salvia essence on labor pain severity in nulliparous women

Despite many advances in midwifery, proper management of labor pain is still one of the major problems related to women's health. This study was performed with aim to compare the effect of the two methods of massage and aromatherapy with salvia essence on labor pain severity in nulliparous women.

This single-blind parallel randomized controlled clinical trial study was done in 2019 on 96 nulliparous pregnant women referred to the delivery ward of Besat hospital in Sanandaj. The subjects were randomly divided into three groups: aromatherapy and massage therapy with salvia essence and control. Data collection tools were a researcher made questionnaire and Numeric pain raiting scale. With the onset of dilatations of 4-5, 7-6 and 8-10 cm of the cervix and during contractions, in the aromatherapy group, a cloth soaked in 10 drops of salvia essence was used and massage with this essence was used in massage group for 20 minutes. Control group did not receive any intervention. Pain intensity was measured at the onset of dilatations and 20 minutes later in three groups. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 22) and Chi-square and analysis of variance for repeated measures tests. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. 

Mean pain intensity scores after the intervention in intervention groups in different dilatations of the cervix showed a significant difference with before intervention (P=0.001), but in the control group, this difference was not significant (P>0.05). Before intervention, there was no significant difference between two intervention groups with the control group in terms of the mean pain intensity scores in dilatations of 4-5 (P = 0.131), 6-7 (P = 0.05) and 8-10 cm of cervix (P= 0.243), but the difference was significant after the intervention (P=0.001) and this difference was not significant between the two intervention groups (P=0.917).

Massage and aromatherapy methods with saliva essence significantly reduced the mean severity of labor pain in various dilatations and as a nonpharmacological method of reducing labor pain is recommended to nulliparous women with the inclusion criteria of this study.