The Effect of Acupressure on Shoulder Pain and Breastfeeding Self-efficacy

After a cesarean delivery, pain causes patient dissatisfaction, impaired recovery, longer hospital stays, and delayed return to normal activities. The incidence of pain in the shoulder is high after surgery on the abdomen and its organs (visceral surgery). It has an incidence of 97% in thoracotomy, 71.4% in laparoscopy, and 40% in women who underwent cesarean section. Many studies in the review of shoulder pain after surgical procedures for the abdomen and its organs blame the phrenic nerve for transmission of shoulder pain and consider it a referred pain. Effective management of pain after childbirth will enable a woman to focus on early maternal duties and reduce the risk of persistent pain and depression.7 Pain interferes with babysitting and other activities of daily living. Therefore, postpartum pain management is critical to successful breastfeeding. Limited mobility after cesarean section may prevent the baby from taking an adequate position at the breast, and pain may inhibit the let-down reflex. Non-pharmacological treatments are useful because they are simple, effective and economical, reduce opioid consumption and increase patient satisfaction. Acupressure is a hand-mediated energy healing technique. Acupressure as a whole is a manually operated, needle-free, non-invasive, cost-effective and non-pharmacological healing intervention to improve patients' well-being. While the emergence of positive situations such as excitement or satisfaction increases breastfeeding self-efficacy; Negative states such as pain, fatigue, anxiety or stress reduce the perception of breastfeeding self-efficacy. Since the mother is in both the postpartum and postoperative period after the cesarean section, pain management is provided in the safest way for the mother and the baby; Supporting pharmacological treatment with non-pharmacological applications has an important place in midwifery care. This study is unique in that it is the first time in our country to examine acupressure on shoulder pain and breastfeeding self-efficacy after cesarean section by using a combination of shoulder (GB21), hand (LI4) and leg (ST36) points and applying acupressure as repeated sessions.