ABSTRACT
Childbirth is a natural and physiologic process, but occasionally some problems such as prolonged labor phases occur, leading to medical interventions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of acupressure on length of delivery time in pregnant women. This double blind clinical trial was performed in 2006 at Delivery Room of Shahid Fayyaz Bakhsh Hospital of Karaj, on 128 women in labor phase, with 3 cm cervical dilatation. This study was approved by the local committee of medical ethics. They randomly assigned to 30-minutes SP6 acupressure group [experimental] or SP6 touch group [control]. Length of the first and second stages of labor was compared between the two groups. Individual characteristics and examination results collected in a questionnaire and analyzed by descriptive statistics, frequency distribution tables, and Man whitney test. Length of the first stage of labor in SP6 acupressure group was significantly shorter than the one in SP6 touch group [p=0/027] and there was no significant difference in length of the second stage of labor between the two groups. These findings showed that SP6 acupressure could effectively reduces the Length of first stage of labor thus it may be used in active management of labor