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Investigation of the Relationship Between Religious Attitude and Postpartum Physical and Perineal Pain in Iran

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Abstract

Postpartum pain is one of the most important and common problems of postpartum mothers who resort to non-pharmacological strategies to relieve it due to the side effects of painkillers. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between religiosity and postpartum physical and perineal pain. The sample size in this cross-sectional study was 101 women giving birth in educational and medical centers of Shiraz, Iran, that was selected by purposive-convenience sampling. Then, a questionnaire was completed for each of them including demographic characteristics, religious attitude, and visual scale of postpartum pain. Data were analyzed by SPSS software. The frequency of the majority of the research population was found at moderate religious attitudes 65.4% (72 individuals). There is a positive and Statistical inverse correlation between religious attitude and perineal pain. According to Fisher's test, in mothers with a high religious attitude, 9.7% had severe perineal pain, 41.9% had moderate pain, and 48.4% had mild pain (p = 0.001). Besides, in the case of physical pain, 3.2%, 35.5%, and 61.3% had severe, moderate, and mild pain, respectively. Regarding physical pains, with the increase in the level of mothers' religious attitude, physical pains also decreased, but the statistical relationship was not significant (p = 0.32). The results showed that the religiosity and spirituality of pregnant women have relieving effects on postpartum pain. Therefore, more attention to the spiritual dimension of human existence and planning to improve it using prayer therapy, dhikr, and meditation is suggested as a strategy to deal with the fear of pain and childbirth and reduce psychological and physical changes before and after childbirth. These findings apply to women with ectopic pregnancies in Iran.

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Acknowledgements

The present article was extracted from a proposal (No. 94-01-08-10550). The authors would like to thank the Research Vice-chancellor of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences for financially supporting the study. The authors would like to thank the Center for Development of Clinical Research of Nemazee Hospital for statistical analysis and Mr Saman Solimanzadeh for editorial assistance.

Funding

The study was financially supported by the Research Deputy of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Midwifery, Community Based Psychiatric Care Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Sara Dokuhaki

  2. Noncommunicable Diseases Research Center, Bam University of Medical Sciences, Bam, Iran

    Naeimeh Tayebi

  3. Department of the Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Maryam Keshavarz

  4. Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Maternal –Fetal Medicine Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Marzieh Akbarzadeh

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  1. Sara Dokuhaki
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MA contributed to the study design; NT and MA wrote the first draft of the manuscript and collected the data and did the literature search; MK helped in the article search and drafting of the manuscript; MA and NT made critical revisions to the paper and responded to the reviewers. All authors have read and approved the manuscript and ensured that this is a case study.

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Correspondence to Marzieh Akbarzadeh.

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The Code of Ethics was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (Grant NO: 94-01-08-10550). Permission was obtained from the hospital authorities to conduct the research, and a full description of the study objectives was provided to them. The authorities were assured that all the information under investigation was kept confidential.

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Dokuhaki, S., Tayebi, N., Keshavarz, M. et al. Investigation of the Relationship Between Religious Attitude and Postpartum Physical and Perineal Pain in Iran. J Relig Health 62, 3313–3326 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01869-6

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