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Effects of electro-acupuncture on labor pain management

  • Maternal-Fetal Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Letter to the Editor to this article was published on 28 April 2015

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the effects of a non-pharmacologic electro-acupuncture method at different acupoints on labor pain management.

Methods

Nulliparous women under the maternity care of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital were recruited and allocated into two experimental groups (EX-B2 group and SP6 group) and one control group, each with 60 eligible participants. Visual analog scale (VAS) was used to assess the pain during active phase of labor before and 30, 60, 120 min after intervention. The duration of active phase, the duration of second stage of labor, the duration of third stage of labor, use of oxytocin, neonatal birth weight, neonatal Apgar score at 1 and 5 min were considered as secondary outcomes of this study.

Results

After 30 min intervention, the mean VAS scores of both EX-B2 group and SP6 group were significantly decreased compared with the control group (P < 0.01); however, no significant difference was observed between the two experimental groups (P > 0.05). After 60 and 120 min intervention, the mean VAS scores of EX-B2 group were significantly lower than SP-6 group (P < 0.05). Both EX-B2 group and SP6 group had significant lower VAS scores after interventions and shorter time used in active phase of labor than the control group (P < 0.05).

Conclusions

The study revealed that the application of electro-acupuncture at EX-B2 and SP6 acupoints could be used as a non-pharmacologic method to reduce labor pain and shorten the duration of active phase of labor.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate the help and support from the nursing staff of the maternity ward of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Chris Dong & Songying Zhang

  2. Department of Nursing, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Linhua Hu

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Fengbing Liang & Songying Zhang

Authors
  1. Chris Dong
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  2. Linhua Hu
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  3. Fengbing Liang
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  4. Songying Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Songying Zhang.

Additional information

Chris Dong and Linhua Hu contribute equally to this work.

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Dong, C., Hu, L., Liang, F. et al. Effects of electro-acupuncture on labor pain management. Arch Gynecol Obstet 291, 531–536 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-014-3427-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-014-3427-x

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