Effectiveness of Relaxation Therapy among Antenatal Mothers
Abstract:
During pregnancy, women undergo specific physiological
changes in their bodies which may lead to stress and a rise in blood pressure
which may be due to different etiological contributions. One way of reducing
their blood pressure as well as stress is by encouraging those women to perform
diaphragmatic deep breathing exercises. The current study aimed to investigate
the effectiveness of relaxation therapy among antenatal mothers. True
experimental pretest-posttest control group research design was conducted in
the antenatal clinic of the host institution. The 60 antenatal mothers were
recruited as study participants using a non-probability purposive sampling
technique. All 60 antenatal mothers were randomly assigned to either the
intervention group (Relaxation therapy) or the placebo group by using the lottery
method,30 in the interventional group and 30 in the placebo group. For the
interventional group, On Day 1, demographic and clinical data were collected
from the study participants, followed by a Diaphragmatic deep breathing
exercise initiated for 20 minutes daily in the morning for about 28 days. For
the placebo group, demographic and clinical data were collected from the study participants,
followed by routine hospital care initiated for about 28 days. On Day 29, the
study participants were re-assessed for the level of stress, blood pressure and
proteinuria in both interventional and placebo groups. The study results
concluded that diaphragmatic deep breathing exercise reduced the levels of
stress (mean difference score on the level of stress was 37.10 and the calculated paired ‘t’ test value of t
= 10.460 was statistically significant at p<0.001 level), blood pressure
(statistically significant difference at p<0.001 level between the post-test
level of systolic BP between the two groups, there was a statistically
significant difference at p<0.01 level between the post-test level of
diastolic BP between the two groups), proteinuria (there was a statistically
significant difference in the post-test level of proteinuria between the
groups), there was no statistically significant difference at p<0.05 level
between the post-test level of BMI between the two groups. Performing
diaphragmatic deep breathing exercises enhanced, the reduction in the level of
blood pressure, stress, BMI and proteinuria among our study participants.
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