The purpose of this study was to examine the effects on labor pain and duration of delivery time for primipara women treated by San-Yin-Jiao(SP-6) and Hob-Gog(LI-4) acupressure. The design of this study was a nonequivalent control group non-synchronizedpost test only design. It was done to identify the effects of SP-6 acupressure or LI-4 acupressure on labor pain in primipara women. The benefits of using SP-6 acupressure or LI-4 acupressure were evaluated by comparing three groups, a SP-6 acupressure group, a LI-4 acupressure group and a control group, not treated with acupressure. The participants included 192 primiparas who underwent vaginal delivery, 72 primiparas in the control group, 71 in the SP-6 acupressure group and 49 in the LI-4 acupressure group. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire consisting of general characteristics, a subjective labor pain scale (Johnson, 1974), and measurement of duration of delivery time. The results of this study are summarized as follows : 1. Differences in the acupressure effect for SP-6 and LI-4 were analyzed using Scheffe's test which showed that differences in the control group vs the SP-6 group and the control group vs the LI-4 group were statistically significant (t=21.767, p<0.05; t=23.923, p<0.05), but the SP-6 group vs the LI-4 group showed no significant differences. 2. The duration of delivery time in the group which had SP-6 acupressure or LI-4 acupressure was shorter (400.77+/-153.34; 379.10+/-127.60) than in the control group (528.68+/-239.08). Differences in the effects of acupressure with SP-6 and LI-4 were also analyzed by Scheffe's test. Control group vs SP-6 group and Control group vs LI-4 group were significantly different(t=127.91, p<0.05; t=149.58, p<0.05), but the SP-6 group vs the LI-4 group did not show any statistically significant difference (t=21.67). This study has shown that SP-6 and LI-4 acupressure were both effective in relation to labor pain and duration of delivery time for primiparas. But it is necessary to replicate the study with a larger number of participants to generalize of the results.
Acupressure* ; Female ; Humans ; Labor Pain* ; Pregnancy ; Surveys and Questionnaires