Effectiveness of mind-body interventions in labour pain management during normal delivery: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Labour pain is a common experience among women and poses risks to both the mother and neonate. Mind-body interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in diverse contexts, but their effectiveness in labour pain management remains controversial.

Objective: To identify the effects of each category of mind-body interventions on labour pain management, particularly pain intensity; the use of pharmacological pain relief medications; and the consequent outcomes, including the rate of caesarean section, duration of labour, and fear of childbirth.

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Methods: A systematic search for related articles was conducted in 10 databases. Randomised controlled trials focusing on the effectiveness of mind-body interventions in labour pain management were included. Two researchers independently conducted methodological quality assessments, data extraction and grading the evidence. Meta-analyses were conducted when studies measured the same outcomes. Standardised mean differences were calculated for continuous variables, whilst risk ratios were calculated for dichotomous variables. All analyses were performed using RevMan version 5.3.

Results: A total of 25 studies from 24 trials were included, and six categories of mind-body interventions, namely hypnosis, mindfulness, breathing skills, muscle relaxation techniques, guided imagery, and therapeutic touch, were identified. Specifically, hypnosis and mindfulness might be effective in relieving labour pain intensity, with large effect sizes (SMD: -1.45, 95 % confidence interval [CI] -2.34, -0.55, I = 91 %; SMD: -1.22, 95 % CI -2.07, -0.37, I = 93 %, respectively), but could not reduce the use of epidural analgesia. Mindfulness, in particular, yielded statistically significant reductions in the rate of caesarean section, with a small effect size (RR: 0.46, 95 % CI 0.21, 0.97, I = 49 %), and in fear of childbirth, with a medium effect size (SMD: -0.63, 95 % CI -1.09, -0.17, I = 65 %). Additionally, all categories of mind-body interventions were associated with a significantly decreased duration of labour compared with the control conditions.

Conclusions: Mind-body interventions may have potential benefits in terms of decreasing labour pain intensity, the rate of caesarean section, the duration of labour, and fear of childbirth, with small-to-large effect sizes. Particularly, hypnosis and mindfulness exhibited significant positive effects in terms of relieving labour pain intensity, with large effect sizes. These interventions could serve as complementary or alternative methods for labour pain management in clinical practice. Nevertheless, further rigorous randomised controlled trials are warranted to confirm our results.

Registration: CRD42024498600 (PROSPERO, January 15, 2024).