The effect of birth companion on the level of pain perception among primi-parturient admitted for labor

According to WHO, a companion is any person from her family, friend or social network chosen by the parturient for continuous support during labor and childbirth who is expected to be caring, compassionate and trustworthy advocate⁽¹⁾. This qualitative study carried out in clean labor room at Tertiary health care center (JIPMER) after obtaining permission from Research monitoring committee and Institutional ethics committee. It was a non-randomized; pre-test post-test control trial with 54 participants, 27 in each group. Experimental group was given birth companion in the labor room and pain is assessed at every 2 hours with Numerical Pain Rating scale in both groups. The result indicated the pain has been reduced from worst and severe level in pre-test (8.78) to moderate and mild level of pain perception in subsequent post-test-1 (7.78) and post-test-2 (4.89) respectively. Comparing the mean pain in both the groups shows statistically significant difference between both the groups. The study concluded the effectiveness of birth companion for the primi-parturient in reducing the pain perception in primi-parturient.