The Effect of Virtual Reality Glasses on Fear of Birth, Delivery Time and Non-Stress Test Results in Pregnancy in the Process of Labor: A Randomized Controlled Single-Blind Study

The birth of a baby is expressed as a unique life experience for every mother. From the pregnancy period, labor affects the mother to a great extent due to both physical and emotional changes. Mothers experience new emotions and experiences since their admission to the delivery room. Birth is a situation where fear, sadness, pain, happiness and joy are experienced together. For this reason, the practices made since the admission of women to the delivery room include an unforgettable experience in women's life.

Labor takes place in a total of four stages, including the onset and completion of effacement and dilatations, the tightening of contractions, the birth of the baby, the birth of the placenta and membranes, and the first four hours afterward. Although the duration of delivery may vary in multiparous and primiparous cases, it should not exceed 24 hours. It has been reported that pregnant women admitted to the delivery room before the active phase stay in the delivery room more, spend labor alone, face more negative situations, and have more stress due to monitoring and analgesia.

Fetal monitoring, induction application, enema, cervical examination, use of analgesia to reduce labor pain for monitoring maternal and fetal health during labor, Applications such as bladder catheter, episiotomy, dose and duration of epidural anesthesia are performed and these applications directly affect the duration of delivery and the length of stay of the mother in the delivery room. Despite all these practices, it is not yet known what the most effective and successful method for initiating and accelerating labor is. In addition to the pharmacological and mechanical methods applied, non-pharmacological and supportive care practices in labor, which are more preferred by women, are also being developed.

In recent years, the idea that childbirth is a natural process that is disrupted by medical interventions has become increasingly common. If the needs of the pregnant woman are known and respected during labor, it is aimed to reduce the need for non-medical supportive care, which facilitates the pregnant woman to use coping methods more, and aims to reduce her anxiety, discomfort, loneliness and fatigue, and to reduce excessive and unnecessary interventions. The use of applications for non-pharmacological care in the labor process is increasing day by day. Acupressure, acupuncture, music therapy, massage treatments, breathing techniques, yoga, hypnosis. Methods such as focusing, distraction, daydreaming, hydrotherapy can be used. Non-pharmacological methods do not prolong the delivery period and attract attention as they have no side effects, no allergy risk, are economical, reliable and easy to use. There is a need for further development of these methods, which are found by trial and error in different countries.

From the mother's admission to the delivery room, many preparations and practices are made for labor. Non-invasive non-stress testing (NST) is frequently used in the evaluation of the well-being of the mother and the baby in the delivery room. The nonstress test is a test used to monitor the heartbeat of the fetus, and to determine the relationship between fetal movements and uterine contractions, if any. The NST is evaluated for at least 20 minutes while the expectant mother is lying on her back or on her left side. A reactive NST is expected to have at least 2 accelerations within 20 minutes and short-term variability to be moderate. NST without at least 2 accelerations for 20 minutes, up to 40 minutes If it still fails, it is considered as non-reactive NST. NST is one of the most important methods used in pregnancy follow-ups to show fetal well-being. The most important disadvantage is the need for further extension of the test period and repetition due to reasons such as long application time and non-reactive NST. The NST can be affected by the mother's intake of sufficient fluid, the mother's hunger or satiety, drug or smoking status, excitement, fear and stress level, and the noise level of the environment. Many non-pharmacological methods are tried to improve maternal and fetal outcomes in NST. It has been reported that music, stress and anxiety during the NST procedure, relaxing hypnotherapy, and distraction methods reduce anxiety in pregnant women and lead to an increase in the number of fetal movements and accelerations.