Comparison of the Effect of Aromatherapy with Lavender and Clove Essential Oils on Pain Intensity and Anxiety in the First Stage of Labor: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Labor pain is a complex and unique phenomenon resulting from one of the most important events in women's lives. Today, many women use non-pharmacological approaches to control labor pain. This study was conducted to compare the effect of aromatherapy with lavender and clove essential oils on pain intensity and anxiety in the first stage of labor. This randomized clinical trial was conducted from April 2023 to July 2024 on 159 pregnant women referred to the maternity ward in three parallel groups: lavender (53), clove (53), and control (53). Sampling was done by convenient and accessible method; and for allocating research units to study groups, block randomization method was used. Aromatherapy started from 4-5 cm dilation and continued until the end of the first stage of labor. In the lavender group, 0.2 mL of lavender essential oil, in the clove group, 0.2 mL of clove essential oil, and in the control group, 1 drop of distilled water was applied to gauze and attached to the collar of the samples' clothes, and the relevant essence was repeated every 15 minutes. Then, participants were asked to breathe normally through the nose for 15 minutes. Pain intensity and anxiety were measured before the intervention and during the intervention at 4-5 cm and 8-10 cm dilation using the Visual Analogue Scale for pain and the Spielberger Anxiety Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS-21 software. The significance level in all tests was considered less than 0.05. In this study, all three groups before the intervention were homogeneous in terms of personal and fertility characteristics. Before the intervention, there was a statistically significant difference between the three groups in terms of mean pain intensity (p=0.001); however, no statistically significant difference was observed in terms of mean anxiety intensity (p=0.09). After the intervention, the results of the post hoc test showed that the mean pain intensity in the lavender group was significantly lower than the clove and control groups (p<0.001). The mean pain intensity score in the clove group was also significantly lower than the control group (p<0.001). Also, the results of the post hoc test showed that the mean anxiety intensity score after the intervention in the lavender group was significantly lower than the clove and control groups (p<0.001). The mean anxiety intensity score in the clove group was also significantly lower than the control group (p<0.001). In this study, both lavender and clove aromas were effective on pain and anxiety in the first stage of labor. Therefore, since no adverse events were reported during the study period, these two essential oils can be suggested to low-risk pregnant women as one of the non-pharmacological methods of labor pain management.