Objective: To assess the effect of foot massage on relieving mother’s post cesarean section
incisional pain. Hypothesis: Was foot massage had a significant effect on relieving post
cesarean section incisional pain? Design: An intervention study was followed. Settings: The
study was conducted in the cesarean section postnatal rooms at Benha University Maternity
hospitals. Sample: It was involved 148 mothers, divided into 74 mothers as control group that
received post cesarean section hospital routine care for pain relief and 74 mothers as
intervention group that received 10 minutes foot massage for pain relief every 6 hours, 12
hours, and 18 hours. Sample type: A convenience sample type. Tools of Data collection
included: structured interviewing questionnaire, modified McGill pain questionnaire short
form and likert Scale. Results: There was significant relieving of pain level among
intervention group compared to control group at different assessment times (p˂0.001).
Findings indicated that, the most cited description of pain among the study group mothers
were fearful, tender, heavy and stabbing pain. While, the most prominent factors that
aggravating pain were sitting, walking and carrying of the newborn. Also, more than half of
subjects among control and less than half of intervention groups reported that, they had
information about post cesarean section incisional pain relief measures. There was better
satisfaction among mothers in the intervention group regarding post cesarean section pain
relief measures than among the control group subjects. Recommendations: Designing health
education training program for nurses about foot massage because it is an inexpensive pain
relief measure, with no harm to mothers. In addition, there is need for further studies in this
area also studies to investigate the health team attitude regarding this method. |