Pain and comfort level associated with Entonox use in parturient mothers: A pretest – posttest study

Abstract

Background
Entonox (inhalation analgesia) is very effective in alleviating the pain during childbirth and resulting as painless normal vaginal delivery. Although it is used worldwide, its usage in
Kerala is comparatively very less. We aimed to investigate the efficacy of Entonox on pain and comfort during first stage of labor among parturient mothers.

Methods
This was a quasi-experimental pretest – posttest control group design with 60 mothers (30 each in experimental and control) of 37-40 weeks of gestation in selected hospitals in Kollam, Kerala. The tools were demographic proforma, Visual analogue scale and Comfort assessment checklist. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to identify the statistically
significant relationships.

Results
Out of 60,45% of the mothers were in the age group of 24-29 years. Most of them were primi gravidae with gestational age of 39-40 weeks. The mean post interventional pain score of the experimental group was lower than that of control
group (4.07/9.93, p < 0.05). Also, the mean post interventional comfort score of the experimental group was lower than that of control group (7.37/15.77, p < 0/05).

Conclusion
Entonox provides significant pain relief and improves comfort and it can be quickly implemented during painful labor.