The Effect of Back Massage with and without Ginger Oil on the Pain Intensity in the Active Phase of Labor in Primiparous Women

The negative effect of labor pain on the tendency of mothers to choose vaginal delivery demands identifying effective and safe methods to reduce pain. Regarding the analgesic effects of ginger, the present study aimed to determine the effect of back massage with and without ginger oil on the pain intensityin the active phase of labor in primiparous women.

This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 90 primiparous women in Umm al-Banin Hospital, Mashhad, Iran (2017). The subjects were selected using convenient sampling and randomly assigned into three groups, namely massage with ginger oil, massage with placebo (i.e., paraffin), and control group. The intervention and placebo groups received 15-minutes back massage in the active phase of labor. The pain intensity was measured in three groups before and after each dilation. The data were collected using questionnaires for demographic and obstetric data as well as Visual Analog Scale for pain measurement. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS software (Version 16) through Kruskal-Wallis and the Chi-square tests.

The mean values of pain intensity after three evaluations were obtained as 4.1±2.29, 6.8±1.73, and 7.6±1.43 in ginger, placebo, and control groups, respectively. The results showed that the ginger group reported the lowest level of pain during the active phase of labor (P<0.001).

Back Massage with ginger oil not only has effect on pain relief but also was completely safe in order to be administered to mothers during their first experience of childbirth.