복식호흡이 조기진통 임부의 불안과 자궁수축 빈도에 미치는 효과

Abstract

Purpose: This pilot study was aimed to examine the effect of abdominal breathing on the frequency of uterine contraction and anxiety of pregnant women with preterm labor. This study utilized pre-experimental design and nonequivalent control group pre-post test quasi-experimental design. Method: Subjects were 35 women in total; 5 in experimental group and 30 in control group. Following the protocol by Shim Joung-Ohn(2005), pregnant women who were admitted to the hospital for preterm labor were assigned to the experimental group. They were instructed to perform abdominal breathing 25 times at the start of uterine contraction, which took 5 minutes. Three sets of 5-minutes abdominal breathing(25 times) were performed daily for three days. Before and after the abdominal breathing of the experimental group, Visual Analogue Scale was employed in order to assess the psychological anxiety level of the experimental group. Blood pressure, pulse, and skin temperature were measured to obtain data on the physical anxiety level. Frequencies of uterine contraction were collected using tocodynamometer. For the women in the control group, nursing and medical records were reviewed. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS program. Results: After abdominal breathing, there was a statistically significant decline in the psychological anxiety level of the experimental group(t=3.11, p=.01). With regard to the physical anxiety level, no statistically significant drop was detected in blood pressure and pulse, skin temperature rose significantly(t=-5.98, p=.00). There was no statistically significant reduction in the frequency of uterine contraction(t=1.94, p=.06). Conclusion: The findings of the study confirmed that abdominal breathing reduced the psychological anxiety of pregnant women with preterm labor and raised their skin temperature, one of the indicators of relaxation response. Besides, the frequency of uterine contraction tended to decrease, although the degree of the decrease was not statistically significant. This suggests that abdominal breathing has a positive effect on uterine muscle relaxation