Doula discussions-reflexology

Here's the link to the article I've been looking at:

http://journals.tums.ac.ir/full_text.aspx?org_id=59&culture_var=en&journal_id=10&issue_id=1886&manuscript_id=15957&segment=fa

It's written in Persian, so you need to translate it online. It also makes it a little funny to read, but I thought it was worth it:) This trial was only 60 women, so it is small. More research(like always) should be done.

Here's a brief description of what was done during labor. Again, it's translated from the computer, so the English is a little different.


"Where the reflex points to reduce pain and stress of uterine contractions in sunken area between the inner ankle and heel, so the group area for 10 minutes per leg in active phase (the first stage of labor) at the time was between uterine massage. A total of 20 minutes for each person was doing reflexology. After 20 minutes the second time within uterine Ashpylbrgr questionnaires completed and pulse and blood pressure were measured again and the people in these groups were also similarly, with the difference that another point them in the right leg was massaged. Count uterine massage reflex points (2 or 3 times) the number of individual contractions during the 20 minutes because it depended on the distance between reflexology contractions start and stop the contractions were starting."

Scenario:

Samanatha began labor at home. She wanted to have as little interruptions as possible ,so she waited to call her doula until she was sure she was in active labor and she had to focus more on working through her contractions. When the doula got there, she was breathing deeply through her contractions while on her hands and knees. She also was holding onto her husband during contractions.

The doula would apply counter pressure to Samantha's lower back. This helped but Samantha was beginning to get tired ,so she laid down on her side for a little bit. This helped her rest, but she wasn't able to do the counter pressure as well. She then tried relaxing in the bathtub. She found this was helpful also.

Soon she began to feel the contractions coming on more intensely and decided it was time to go to the hospital. The checking in routine made it hard for her to concentrate and because they were wanting to monitor the heart rate for 20m before they took her off, her movement was restricted.

Once the monitor's came off she began pushing. During the pushing she became very tired after the first hour and started to worry that she wouldn't be able to push her baby out. Eventually she was able to and her baby was born 1.5 hours after she started pushing.

Questions:

1. At what points in the scenario would reflexology be useful?

2. At what points would it not be useful?

3. What other situations could reflexology be useful other than the scenario described above?


For those who are living in the Utah area, MCU is offering courses for students and the public. One of those courses includes one on maternal reflexology. I think I'm going to see if I can go to this one.

http://www.midwifery.edu/