The effectiveness of ‘pain digital acupressure (pda)’ in reducing labor pain and the duration of the second stage of labor

The maternal mortality rate in Indonesia is still the highest among Asian countries. One of the reasons is due to prolonged labor that is influenced by the anxiety and fear of the mother during labor. Anxiety and pain are very connected and influence each other. The pain will release the hormone that will disturb uterine contraction and increase the respiratory stimulation and decrease levels of CO2 in mother and fetus. This will influence the wellness of both mother and fetus. The aim of this study is to quantify the effectiveness of Pain Digital Acupressure (PDA)in reducing labor pain and the length of the second stage during labor. PDA is a self-managed, non-invasive tool, based on electro-medical principles and does not disturb the labor process and can give the patient a feeling of comfort. The design is a quasi-experimental study involving 76 women during normal labor, (38in the Intervention group and 38 in the Control group) .The results shown there was a significant difference on the labor pain scale after using the PDA in the first, second and the third 30 minutes during latent stage labor compared with pain scale before using PDA (p: 0.000). The most effective period to use PDA was the first 30 minutes, which decreased pain by an average of1.79; and signifcant different with control group (p: 0,00). The use of PDA also reduced the length of the second stage of labor, (Intervention group: 14.36 minutes and Control group: 22.50 minutes, p=0.000). It is strongly recommended for women during labor to be offered PDA to modulate labor pain and the length of labor.