The effects of Virtual Reality in natural childbirth: A systematic review

Background and aims: Labor pain is one of the most severe pains that can lead to negativeconsequences such as stress and maternal academia. There are different pharmacological andnon-pharmacological methods for labor analgesia. Most of the pharmaceutical methods of laboranalgesia have unpleasant side effects, including prolong labor and increased risk of surgical interventions.The V.R is a new method of pain reduction and it is welcomed in different aspects ofmedical sciences. The intensity and duration of this pain vary with the progress of labor. Reducingthe labor pain is important in order to encourage mothers to normal vaginal delivery. Therefore,we reviewed the effectiveness and safety of V.R as a method of anxiety and pain reduction duringlabor.Method: This systematic review examined the use of V.R in reducing labor pain and anxiety.PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL China National KnowledgeInfrastructure, and Wan-Fang databases were checked from ۲۰۱۰ to the end of ۲۰۲۲. A researcherhad the main task of screening the studies. The second researcher’s opinion was applied if the firstresearcher had doubts. At first, the researcher collected all abstracts related to to Virtual Reality,Pregnant Woman, Deliveries, Obstetric, and Parturition. Virtual reality abstracts in the elderly,men, and children were excluded. A checklist was prepared, including the name of the researcher,the title of the article, the year it was done, the place where it was done, the method of sampleselection, the number of samples, the type of study, the instrument for measuring the intensity andduration of pain).Results: Based on these steps, ۸۹۰ articles using keywords were found in the initial search. ۸۵۹studies were excluded due to being irrelevant or lacking RCT. Full text was reviewed for ۳۱ studies.۲ studies were removed due to duplicate titles. ۱۷ studies did not meet the inclusion criteria.Finally, ۱۲ studies approved. A study examined the analgesic effects of V.R in ۴ cm dilation andin another study, the effect of V.R in ۹ cm dilation. These studies showed that the use of V.R reducesthe pain intensity of the active stage of labor. Video photos of babies, music, and scenery asV.R were used to reduce pain in these patients. The results of these studies showed that the effectsof V.R in reducing the duration of the first, second and third stages of labor were not statisticallysignificant. Several investigated the effect of V.R on pain in the entire labor and other studiesinvestigated the effect of reducing the intensity of pain in the active stage of labor. The results ofthese studies showed that the use of V.R has reduced the intensity of labor pain. Several studieshave investigated the effect of V.R on maternal anxiety and have shown that V.R reduces maternalanxiety during labor. Women who have used V.R during the stages of childbirth have shownhigher satisfaction with childbirth while they did not have any side effects.Conclusion: Using of V.R technology reduces the pain and anxiety of the mother during thedifferent stages of labor, while it does not have a significant effect at the time of the first, secondand third stages of labor.

کلیدواژه ها:

Deliveries ، Obstetric ، Pregnant Woman ، V.R