WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE OF LABORING IN WATER (HYDROTHERAPY).
Contributors: University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 217
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Description: This descriptive study sought to understand women's perception of benefits expected and experienced when they labored in water. The conceptual framework was derived from the writings of Nightingale. Women's descriptions of the comfort measures they expected to use in labor, the perceived helpfulness of the measures used, specific characteristics of their labor environment, and their feelings about their labor were obtained by a mailed survey. Thirty-five categorical, scaled, and short answer items were developed for the questionnaire.

A 51% response rate resulted in 207 responses for analysis. A shower, tub or whirlpool bath was used by 121 (58%) respondents while 86 (42%) respondents did not labor in water. The mean age and parity for the total sample were 28 years and 1.7 births. The respondents were primarily white (84%), and attended by nurse-midwives (29%) or physicians (71%).

Women who chose laboring in water expected it to help them relax (86%), feel better (74%), hurt less (72%), and work better with their contractions (63%). Women entered the water to relax (80%), and because it was suggested to them (60%). Women who labored in water felt less afraid, cleaner, freer, more peaceful, more relaxed, and more in control; while women who did not labor in water felt more protected, accepted, cared for, supported, and safe. These differences between groups were statistically significant. There were no statistically significant differences in maternal or newborn morbidity between the water and non-water groups.

In the narratives, women identified the sustaining presence of the husband, family and/or healthcare professional as the most important help while in labor. The comfort measures most frequently anticipated for use in labor were breathing with contractions, walking and massage. Those measures scored most helpful were: women's own unique measures, the presence of family, breathing with contractions, and laboring in water.

Using a seven-point semantic differential scale, women in this sample scored; feeling better (6.0), more relaxed (5.6) and less pain (5.5), while laboring in water. Since some women found laboring in water helpful and no adverse effects were demonstrated, this comfort measure should be included among those that nurses offer to laboring women. Further research is needed to document benefits-without-risk of laboring in water.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-10, Section: B, page: 4321.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1994.

School code: 0831.