Pain Management With Virtual Reality Hypnosis in Parturients in the Latency or Cervical Ripening Phase

The latency phase corresponds to the first phase of the first stage of labour, during which the parturient feels regular, rhythmic uterine contractions that are often painful, with or without changes of the cervix. This phase lasts an average of 8 hours for primiparous women, compared with 5 hours for multiparous women, and can last up to twenty hours in total.

Cervical ripening corresponds to the medical induction of regular, painful uterine contractions in order to obtain a favourable cervix for the induction of labour. Cervical ripening is carried out either medically (oral or local prostaglandins) or mechanically (double balloon dilatation) and accounts for 69.2% of labour inductions, which in turn account for 25.8% of births.

At Amiens-Picardie University Hospital, this maturation stage can last from a few hours to 2 days, depending on the service protocol.

What these two stages of childbirth have in common is that they are both painful, with very few analgesic drugs available that can be used without side-effects on the foetus during pregnancy.

In recent years, there has also been a growing demand from parturients for the use of non-medicinal therapies.

It therefore seems essential to provide parturients with as many effective non-drug methods as possible to manage their pain properly.

If virtual reality hypnosis sessions prove to be effective, they will provide better pain management for women in labour, reduce the use of morphine derivatives (with their attendant side-effects, particularly on the foetus), and above all meet the growing demand from women in labour for the most physiological possible support during childbirth.