Article ID: JJAM-2024-0037
Objective
To determine the effects of hot fomentation application to the back on women's stress levels and their breasts during the early postpartum period.
Subjects and Methods
Participants included 22 primiparous mothers who had delivered vaginally without any major complications during pregnancy that could obviously affect the newborn, experienced the delivery or postpartum period with their newborn, and wished to breastfeed their newborns from postpartum day 0 or day 1. A hot fomentation was applied to the back for 15 minutes every day from postpartum day 1 to 4 at the same time in the morning whenever possible. Stress was assessed through cortisol and human herpesvirus types 6 and 7 (HHV6 and HHV7) levels from saliva samples collected before and after the hot fomentation application and in the afternoon (approximately from 3 to 6 p.m.). Moreover, subjective evaluation was also performed using a 9-point Likert scale from “1: unpleasant” to “9: pleasant.” Breast engorgement and breast pain were also assessed using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS).
Results and Discussion
Stress was significantly higher after the hot fomentation than before (p<0.01) for all postpartum days (1–4 days). For HHV6, significant differences were noted after the hot fomentation application on postpartum day 1 only (p=0.016), suggesting that stress was relieved after the hot fomentation. However, no other significant differences were noted in cortisol and herpes virus levels between the days or time of the day (morning vs. afternoon) after the hot fomentation or by the number of postpartum days, with the sole exception of HHV6 after the hot fomentation on postpartum day 1, suggesting that the stress-relieving effect of the back hot fomentation was not yet clear. For breast engorgement and breast pain, median VAS in the afternoon increased with the number of days postpartum as the engorgement and pain became more intense. However, it was believed that there was no significant difference in the median VAS before and after the hot fomentation for breast engorgement and breast pain on all postpartum days, suggesting that the increase in breast engorgement and breast pain with postpartum days is a natural physiological change and that the back hot fomentation has no significant effect on either.
Conclusion
The application of hot fomentation to the back for early postpartum mothers was shown to bring comfort without notably affecting breast engorgement or breast pain.
