Effects of Connective Tissue Massage on Pain in Primiparous Women After Caesarean Birth

A study published in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing evaluated the efficacy of connective tissue massage to reduce postoperative pain in primiparous (pregnant for the first time) women on Postoperative Day 1 after unplanned caesarean birth.

The study was a randomized controlled trial with three groups: intervention (Group 1), control or standard care (Group 2), and individualized attention (Group 3). The setting was at family/newborn units of a large teaching hospital in the Northeastern United States. A total of 165 women who experienced unplanned caesarean births of singleton newborns at term gestation.

Participants were randomized into three groups: those in Group 1 received a 20-minute massage, those in Group 2 received the usual standard of care, and those in Group 3 received 20 minutes of individualized attention. On Postoperative Day 1, participants completed questionnaires to measure overall pain, stress, and relaxation at Time 1 and again 60 minutes later. Daily numeric pain ratings and medication consumption data were recorded.

Participants in the intervention group had increased relaxation, decreased pain, decreased stress, and decreased opioid use on Day 1 and Day 2 of the hospital stay compared with the other groups. Additionally, opioid use in the intervention group decreased linearly, whereas the control groups had a nonlinear pattern of change.

The authors concluded that massage therapy during postoperative hospitalization improved relaxation and decreased pain, stress, and opioid use in this sample of women after unplanned caesarean births.