ABSTRACT
A variety of pain relieving measures in labor are available, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods. The goal is to use a method to reduce or modify labor pains without causing ill effects to the mother or baby. All forms of pain medications cross the placental barrier affecting the baby, so natural measures for pain relief are appropriate methods to be easily used by nurses, midwives at hospital or at home births. This study included 200 parturients divided equally into 4 groups. The first group received back massage only; the second group received heat compresses and the third group received both massage and heat compresses. The fourth group was a control group applying conventional pharmacological pain relief measures. Severe pain was experienced significantly more among women in the control group [88%] than the intervention groups [16%, 18% and 12% respectively, p < 0.001]. The fetal heart rates and the maternal vital signs were not affected in the study groups. This study emphasized the natural non-pharmacological inexpensive methods as effective measures for pain relief during labor