Music as an adjunct for postoperative pain relief after cesarean section: A prospective quasi experimental study

• Author Details:   
• Ektha M. Shetty ^*
• Prema D’cunha
• Nikil Shetty

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Background: The alleviation of pain post-surgical birth is very crucial. Pain and anxiety may diminish a mother’s ability to ambulate early, take better care of her newborn and may hamper the mother child bonding. The use of heterogenous non-pharmacological adjuncts to the standard post-surgery analgesics, especially in caesarean section, may improve the recovery of patients. Music is one such non-invasive method.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of music as an adjunct for postoperative pain relief following caesarean section and its effect on maternal satisfaction.

Materials and Methods: This prospective quasi experimental study was conducted on 94 antenatal patients scheduled to undergo caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia. They were assigned on every alternate week to either Music Group (1) or Silence Group (2). Group-1 consisted of patients receiving standard care along with music while Group 2 included patients receiving only standard care. The visual analog scale and Maternal satisfaction questionnaire was used to record maternal pain perception, anxiety and any additional analgesia requirement.

Results: Among both the groups the pain score according to the VAS Scale shows that 61% of patients had moderate pain and 48% in Group 1 had VAS <4>

Conclusion: Music as an adjunct to postoperative analgesia can be used to alleviate the patient from their pain, stress and anxiety following caesarean section and take better care of their newborn. The patients were satisfied at different levels with the music provided with minimum use of analgesics postoperatively. We believe research in this field at various levels in obstetrics and gynaecology should be encouraged.

Keywords: Caesarean, Music, Postpartum.