Immersive Virtual Reality Improves Satisfaction In Laboring Women

Labor is a long and painful process for women. For avoiding or alleviating pain, adjuvant treatments such as hydrotherapy, yoga, hypnosis, acupuncture, and relaxation techniques could be used. Recent literature indicates the successful use of immersive virtual reality for a variety of painful medical procedures. Immersive virtual reality is hypothesized to reduce pain through distraction, a non-pharmacologic attentional mechanism. The user's brain is preoccupied with the flood of information presented by the virtual environment restricting the mind from processing pain signals. The investigators hypothesized that laboring women find immersive virtual reality as a beneficial tool for their overall labor and delivery experience. The 42 laboring women were randomized into two arms: virtual reality group ( intervention group) and control group. The investigators used Oculus Quest All-in-one VR Gaming Headset (128 GB) VR system. Before the intervention, the authors introduced the equipment and instructed study participants on how to wear and activate the headsets. Anxiety and depression scales were also applied on admission. The laboring women who enrolled in the VR group first wore the headsets in early labor (Cervical dilation 3 cm) for 20 minutes. The patients were offered to choose among several virtual environments including orange sunset, green meadows, black beginning, red savannah, blue deep, blue moon, blue ocean, white winter, and red fall. Cards printed out from the images of the Nature Trek application representing these novel immersion options were provided to the patients to help them pick up their preferred environment in advance. The second implementation of VR headsets was after the epidural analgesia in the active phase of labor for another 20 minutes (Cervical dilation 6-7cm). After the second intervention, the "Virtual Reality Satisfaction Survey" was applied by the authors. Patients were asked to fill out a visual pain rating scale right before and after the VR use in early and active labor. The primary objective of this study was to assessed whether immersive virtual reality provided pain relief in the latent or active phase of labor. The authors also evaluated anxiety and depression in both groups on admission as potential confounders. Anxiety and depression levels, assessed with the Beck Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory. Patient satisfaction with the use of VR was assessed by a "Virtual Reality Satisfaction Survey" 10 question survey prepared by our team: 0 being the lowest and 100 being the highest possible VR satisfaction score.The investigators also asked these women whether the participants would like to use VR in future labor. Patient satisfaction with overall labor and delivery experience was assessed using a Visual Analog Scale (VAS). All discharged women were called a week following discharge and asked to rate their overall childbirth experience on a scale from 0 to 10. Zero indicates the most negative experience possible and 10 indicates the highest satisfaction possible. The authors classified a score of 8 to 10 as high satisfaction. Pain scores both in early and active labor in each group were assessed using Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale.