Effect of Lavender Oil Drops Application on Perineal Pain Intensity and Episiotomy Wound Healing Among Primiparous Women

Background: Worldwide, perineal discomfort and dyspareunia are the most common problems encountered postnatally occurring in 42% of women undergoing vaginal birth. Perineal pain is worsening following instrumental delivery, episiotomy, or spontaneous tears. Episiotomy may be a major risk factor for infection, blood loss, decrease of sexual pleasure, delayed healing, fistula, incontinence of urine, feces and flatus. Many comfort measures have been recommended to reduce perineal pain and improve episiotomy wound healing. The use of essential oils is among the earliest methods adopted for episiotomy wound healing and pain relief. Lavender oil is traditionally believed to have sedative, anti-depressive and anti-inflammatory properties, in addition to its recognized antimicrobial effects. Objective: To determine the effect of lavender oil drops application on perineal pain intensity and. Episiotomy wound. healing. among women. Design: Quasi- experimental research design was utilized in this study. Setting: The study was conducted at the post-natal unit of El-Shatby Maternity University Hospital in Alexandria. Subjects: A convenient sample of 80 primiparous women were selected from the previously mentioned setting. Tools: Four tools were used for data collection. The first tool was basic data structured interview schedule. The second tool was pain intensity visual analog scale (VAS). The third tool was a modified version of Chamber Price pain rating scale (CPPRS). The fourth tool was wound healing REEDA scale. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups in relation to perineal pain intensity using (VAS) after 10th postnatal days (p = 0.018) from intervention .Regarding the total score of episiotomy healing process, using REEDA, there was a highly statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding perineal healing scores (p =0.000) during the 5th postnatal days and after 10th postnatal days (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Primiparous women who apply lavender oil drops exhibit less perineal pain intensity and more positive signs of episiotomy wound healing than those who use routine hospital episiotomy care. Recommendations: In service training program for nurses in postpartum units about the utilization of non- pharmacological approaches especially using lavender oil to improve wound healing and perineal pain.