Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Foot Reflexology on Pain among Post Cesarean Mothers Admitted in Selected Hospitals of Shimla, District Shimla (H. P.)

Introduction: Pregnancy and birth are as ordinary and extraordinary as breathing thinking or loving. The most commonway of childbirth is a vaginal delivery which is also called the natural process of child birth.But there is one more way of child birth that is known as cesarean section which is a surgical procedure.According to WHO, the cesarean section rate of above 15% has not been acceptable, where as in India the prevalence rate has been 18%.Clearly these rates are unacceptably high all over the globe.In 2012, about 23 million deliveries occurred by a surgical procedure called cesarean section. A common complain after caesarean section is the sensitivity of the scar itself. For instance it may hurt to lean over to pick up baby or may cause pain with lifting or other positional changes. The scarring can cause the adjacent muscles to develop trigger points that refer pain to areas like the clitoris or urethra. Aim: The main aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of foot reflexology on pain among post -cesarean mothers. Methods and materials: A quasi -experimental non -randomized control group design was used for the study. Total 60 post -cesarean mothers (30 in experimental and 30 in control group) who were admitted in Kamla Nehru Hospital for Mother & Child, Shimla and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh were selected to take part in the research. The sampling technique used for the study was convenient sampling technique. Data was collected by using numerical pain rating scale. Foot reflexology has been provided to the experimental group once a day for 3 consecutive days from 1st post operative day for 10 minutes and control group receives routine post -operative care. Results: The study results shows that foot reflexology was effective in terms of reducing pain among post -cesarean mothers. Conclusion:The study findings showed that there was significant reduction of the post interventional score in the experimental group than the control group.