Evaluation of Painless Labor with Entonox Gas

Labor pain is the most severe pain that a woman experiences during her life. With attention to different methods of painless labor such as entonox gas, but unfortunately the most people concerned about it. The purpose of this study was to assess painless labor with entonox gas.

This clinical trial study was performed on 98 pregnant women in active phase of delivery in Shahid Yahyanejad hospital, Babol, Iran. After getting consent, they were randomly divided in two groups: intervention group=49 and control group=49. Efficacy, experience and satisfaction were measured in five levels: excellent, good, moderate, weak and none. Expectation of pregnant women about entonox gas in two groups and also before and after using entonox gas in intervention group was compared.

The most pregnant women in intervention group had less labor pain (91.8%), and satisfied with it (98%). Reduction of labor pain was in moderate level in most cases (43.9%). Forty-nine percent of pregnant women receiving gas described their experience as good and excellent and 80.9% indicated that they will request entonox gas in future. The amount of suffering from gas complications was mild in most pregnant women in intervention group (63%). Expectation of the majority of pregnant women in intervention group (before receiving gas) and in control group was weak (65.3%, 40.9%). The percentage of positive expectations increased after receiving entonox gas (p<0.05). There was a significant difference between the expectations of intervention group before and after receiving entonox gas and control group (p<0.05). Positive expectations were more in intervention group than control group. Most differences of expectations in intervention group before and after receiving the gas were: higher efficacy (p<0.05), more satisfaction (p<0.05), less complications (p<0.05), information about gas as painless labor method (p<0.05), and also previous experience of intolerable labor pain (p<0.05).

This study showed that using entonox gas caused less labor pain, favorite expectation and experience, and also more maternal satisfaction.