The Effect of Shower on Birth Pain, Postpartum Fatigue and Comfort

According to the definition of the International Association for the Study of Pain, pain; It is an unpleasant sensory and emotional sensation and behavior related to the individual's past experiences, caused by real or potential tissue damage originating from any part of the body. Birth pain is the most severe pain experience known and defined, with physiological as well as psychological and sociocultural components that may vary among individuals. Physiological components; The pressure on the tissues of the birth canal and the stretching of the tissues are psychosocial components; It is related to fear, anxiety and coping ability during the birth process. The individual's response to pain with cultural values and learned behaviors constitutes the sociocultural dimension of pain. In addition to these known characteristics of labor pain, the degree of pain varies according to the frequency, duration and intensity of contractions and the cervical opening. The American Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology states that labor pain should be treated and that it may have negative effects on maternal and neonatal health in cases where the pregnant woman has difficulty coping with labor pain.

Pharmacological and non-pharmacological applications are used to relieve birth pain. While pharmacological methods reduce pain, they distract women from the physiological reality of birth and prevent women from accepting pain as a natural part of birth. Non-pharmacological methods are alternative options that will help women manage pain during birth by ensuring that women experience pain. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of non-pharmacological methods such as massage and touching, distraction and imagination, movement and position, music, making sounds and praying, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, acupressure, hot and cold applications in labor pain.

Showering (hydrotherapy), one of the non-pharmacological methods used to reduce pain in labor, is used to increase relaxation and reduce birth pain. In a study conducted domestically, it was stated that the use of hydrotherapy during labor pain helped the woman relax, reduced the pain felt, lowered blood pressure and increased diuresis. The use of water during labor and regular feeding of the uterus in the first stage of labor has helped to feel less pain during contractions and to have shorter and less invasive births.

Fatigue, in addition to being a universal symptom associated with diseases, is also a common complaint among healthy individuals. The North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) defines fatigue as "a predominant, persistent feeling of exhaustion and a decrease in normal physical and mental working capacity". defines. Symptoms of fatigue; Inability to carry out daily tasks, impaired concentration, difficulty in remembering, short-term memory loss, indifference to the environment, decreased awareness, lack of energy, fatigue, difficulty in making decisions, muscle weakness, increased physical complaints, emotional changes, tendency to sleep, hallucinations, perceptual weakness. is suffering.

Fatigue is a common symptom during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period. In addition to being a very special, happy experience for women, birth also means coping with physical pain and difficulties and fatigue due to insomnia. With the birth, the six-week period begins, called the postpartum period, during which the woman feels social, physical and psychological changes. This process is a woman's; It is a difficult period in which all systems and organs in the body return to their pre-pregnancy state, the woman tries to adapt to the new roles and responsibilities acquired in the transition to parenthood, and many progressive and regressive changes occur in the woman's body. Fatigue, which is an inevitable part of this period, can increase until the sixth postpartum week. In the study of Kılıç et al., it was reported that 88.5% of women experienced fatigue in the postpartum period.