Back massage intervention for relieving lower back pain in puerperal women: A randomized control trial study

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a back massage (BM) intervention in relieving lower back pain (LBP) in post-partum women.This is a randomized controlled trial study. Sixty normal spontaneous delivery women (response rate: 96.7%), who gave birth at our hospital, participated in this study from February to May of 2012. We randomly assigned 30 women to the experimental group and 30 women to the control group. During the 1 month post-partum period, the women in the experimental group received a BM for 5 consecutive days, whereas the women in the control group received routine care only. The LBP score was assessed according to a pain visual analog scale. After 5 days of intervention, the experimental group (n = 30) experienced significantly less LBP than did the control group (n = 30) (2.97 ± 1.71 vs. 4.43 ± 1.77, t = 3.26, P = 0.002). BM therapy can effectively reduce LBP during the first post-partum month. Additional studies are required to confirm the effects of BM therapy during extended post-partum periods.