Effect of Therapeutic Touch on Labor Pain and Hormone Levels

VAS is a one-dimensional scale that objectively assesses pregnant woman's perception of pain. VAS is a 100 mm scale (10-cm) that represents lack of pain (0=no pain) on one end and worst possible pain (10=severe pain) on the other end; the scale is used to determine the severity of pain quantitatively. The patient marks any point between the two ends that describe his/her pain severity. The point between lack of pain and the point indicated by the patient is measured using a ruler and recorded as cm. These numeric values indicate the pregnant woman's pain severity.

MPLS PBS,is a measurement tool that assesses how mothers perceive their experiences in normal delivery or planned cesarean sections. The sub-scales of the scale include experiences during labor (7 items: 3, 5, 6, 8, 15, 17, 18), experiences during the pain phase of labor (7 items; 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 16), end of labor (4 items: 22, 23, 24, 25), partner involvement (4 items; 11,12,20,21), and awareness (3 items; 13,14,19). Each item in the MPLS is rated between 1 and 5: 1-Never, 2-A little, 3-Moderate, 4-A lot, and 5-Too much. Since Items 15-16-17-18-19 in the scale include negative statements, these items are scored reversely. Cronbach's alpha value of the scale was 0.90, and the alpha values obtained using two half-test methods were found 0.83 and 0.81.

The original name of the scale was the "Childbirth Comfort Questionnaire", and it was developed by Kerri Durnell Schuiling in 2003 based on Kolcaba's comfort theory (7). Turkish reliability and validity of the Childbirth Comfort Questionnaire were performed by Potur et al. (2015) (8). Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the scale was found 0.75. The 14-item scale is rated on a 5-point scale. Each item is responded considering the comfort in the delivery room. Each item in the original scale is reported to be scored between 1 and 5 (1=I strongly disagree, 2= I disagree, 3=I partly agree, 4= I agree, 5=I strongly agree). Scores to be obtained from the scale range between 14 and 70. Before the total score is calculated, item 2,4,6,9,12,13,14 should be reversed. While higher scores indicate a high level of comfort, lower scores indicate a low level of comfort.

Samples took from pregnant women two times for oxytocin, endorphin, and cortisol analyses, which will include right before starting Therapeutic Touch (TT) in the latent phase of the first phase of labor and 30 minutes after the therapeutic touch. The samples will be collected in 1.5 ml Eppendorf tubes that will have 70 μL spit sample. The samples will be taken to deep freezers at the Genetic Department of Medical Faculty at Çukurova University following the cold-chain rule and waited at -80 °C until the analysis day