Effect of Reflexology in Post Operative Pain Management among Women after Cesarean Section

An Experimental study to determine the effectiveness of reflexology (foot massage) in post operative pain management among women after Cesarean section in Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, Tamil Nadu. About 60 post operative women who met the inclusion criteria were randomly selected to Experimental and Control group. The women in Experimental group received reflexology for 20 minutes every 6 hours for the first 24 hours post operatively. The women in Control group received only the routine pain medication every 6 hours. Pain was assessed using numerical pain scale and observation checklist. The study findings revealed that the mean pain scores in the women of the Experimental group is 4, 1.9, 2.1, 2.3, 1.7 at 0, 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours post operatively. In Control group the mean pain scores are 5.1, 4, 5.2, 3.5, 3.8 at 0, 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours post operatively. The mean pain score of the women in Experimental group is 2.420 and women in Control group is 4.06 and there is significant reduction of pain score in women of Experimental group compared to the women in Control group with the p value of 0.0001. About 70 % of women in Experimental group had no pain at 6, 12, 18, 24 hours post operatively and above 35 % of women had mild pain in the Control group at 6, 12, 18, 24 hours post operatively. Reflexology has found to be an effective non - pharmacological pain management method among post operative cesarean section women.