Virtual Reality Analgesia in Labor: The VRAIL Pilot Study—A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial Suggesting Benefit of Immersive Virtual Reality Analgesia in Unmedicated Laboring Women

Abstract

(Anesth Analg. 2019;128(6):e93–e96) Pain management during childbirth has long been the focus of many researchers in the anesthesiology field, as an estimated 60% of laboring women receive neuraxial analgesia for their pain. Because epidural analgesia can have multiple side effects, some women elect to have an unmedicated birth either independently or with medical therapies. One option for unmedicated labor assistance is immersive virtual reality (VR) distraction to provide a pleasant environment for the patient as well as a diversion from labor pain. Current technological advances have made VR more accessible than in previous years, and this study aimed to analyze the efficacy of immersive VR analgesia as a labor pain treatment. The investigators intended to discover if VR distraction would result in significantly reduced pain scores for unmedicated labor compared with patients with no VR distraction, as well as examine potential benefits in regards to pain management, anxiety, nausea, and patient satisfaction.

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

“…Similar to other relevant studies, the women experienced no side effects (Ebrahimian & Rahmani Bilandi, 2020; Frey et al, 2019). Preferring nonpharmacological methods that have no side effects considering the patient safety and that are inexpensive such as VR will increase the patient satisfaction and the quality of healthcare services.…”

“…The study revealed that VR reduced the perceived pain level of the pregnant woman when dilatation was 9 cm. Wong et al (2020) Similarly, the randomised controlled studies by Frey et al (2019) showed that using VR during labour reduced pain. JahaniShoorab et al (2015) also determined that women who used VR in episiotomy repair experienced less pain.…”

“…The study by Frey and Bauer (2019) had similar findings to this study. Additionally, 82% of women who used VR stated that they enjoyed the application (Frey et al, 2019). Moghimi‐Hanjani et al (2015) found that using reflexology reduced the women's anxiety levels during labour.…”

“…The number of complementary and alternative methods used to reduce/relieve pain during labour in women is increasing worldwide (Czech et al, 2018; Frey et al, 2019; McCaffrey et al, 2020; Smith et al, 2018). This increasing interest has caused the use of new technological practices to be used in the field of healthcare.…”

“…As known by the researchers, there is limited number of studies that determined that effect of VR on labour pain. In these studies, pregnant women were shown ocean waves, blooming trees, crunching campfire and submarine creatures with VR (Frey et al, 2019; Wong et al, 2020). Differently, images of the mother's foetus were shown to pregnant women in this study.…”