The Effect of Showing Images of the Foetus with the Virtual Reality Glass During Labour Process on Labour Pain, Birth Perception and Anxiety

Abstract

Aim and objectives This study was conducted to determine the effect of showing images of the foetus to the pregnant women with the virtual reality glass during labour process on labour pain, childbirth perception and anxiety level. Background Virtual reality is an effective and inexpensive method that allows the creation of simulated scenarios in which it interacts with the virtual environment with multisensory stimuli. Design This is a randomised controlled experimental study. This study was conducted with the guidelines of Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT). The study was enrolled in the Clinical Trials database (NCT04664114). Methods The study included 100 pregnant women (50 intervention group and 50 control group). Ultrasound images of the foetus were recorded on the 28th week of pregnancy of the women in the intervention group. These images were shown to the women with the virtual reality glass during labour process. Routine procedures were carried out for the women in the control group. The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was applied to both groups when cervical dilatation was 4 cm and 9 cm. The Women's Perception for the Scale of Supportive Care Given During Labor (POBS) and the Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale (PASS) were applied almost two hours after labour. Results The VAS scores of the women in the intervention group with 9 cm dilatation and their PASS mean scores were significantly lower than women in the control group while their POBS score were significantly higher (p < 0.01). Conclusion The results of this study show that showing images of the foetus to women with virtual reality decreased labour pain and anxiety level. Relevance to clinical practice It is known that supportive care given during labour is important both for the mother's and baby's health. Therefore, it is important that nurses and midwives, who spend the most time with women and provide the most support, reduce the pain and anxiety of the woman with nonpharmacological practices and make them feel positive feelings about delivery.

Systematic Bibliometric Analysis of Research Hotspots and Trends on the Application of Virtual Reality in Nursing

“…This can benefit new nursing interns who may be afraid of occupational exposure events during practice-based learning. During clinical application, a VR system not only brings convenience to staff, but also actively and effectively interferes with patients' physical and mental health ( 27 , 28 ).…”

“…Moreover, VR technology can help people meet their spiritual and psychological needs during some special periods. For example, it can reduce the anxiety of mothers during childbirth and the fear of children undergoing surgery ( 6 , 28 , 55 ). In the past 2 years, more personalized and refined VR with neurotic feedback systems have been developed.…”

The Effects of Virtual Reality in Maternal Delivery: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…The full text was checked for 39 studies, of which 1 was excluded for repeated publication, 5 were uncompleted experiments, and 21 studies did not meet the inclusion criteria. Finally, 12 studies were included in our systematic review (Figure 1) [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”

“…All included studies were published between 2019 and 2021, including 4 in Chinese and 8 in English. The studies were from China [24,25,[32][33][34], the United States [26,30], Turkey [23,29], Iran [28,31], and the Netherlands [27]. Of the 12 included studies, 11 were RCTs [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][31][32][33][34] and 1 was a cross-over RCT [30].…”

“…The studies were from China [24,25,[32][33][34], the United States [26,30], Turkey [23,29], Iran [28,31], and the Netherlands [27]. Of the 12 included studies, 11 were RCTs [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][31][32][33][34] and 1 was a cross-over RCT [30]. In all, 6 of the studies used VR glasses [23,24,26,29,31,33], and 3 used head-mounted VR devices [28,30,32].…”