Abstract
This study was conducted for the purpose of identifying the effectiveness of touching as a care for a stressful woman in intrapartum.
The following methodology was used. The subjects were 25 primipara, who were receiving antepartum and intrapartum management at an obstetrics and gynecology clinic near Yokohama. Fifteen of the subjects were assigned to an experimental group and 10 to a control group. Only the experimental group was given touching manipulation by the researcher the women in the labor and delivery period were observed for responses in expressions/attitudes, tones of the voice, tension of the brachial muscle, numbers of the pulse wave, by VTR, tape recorder, and polygraph for physiological data.
By analyzing the responses between the experimental and the control group, we found that touching is an effective care for a stressful woman in intrapartum, alleviating her stress.
