For mothers going through their first labour, this can be a daunting time. One question no one can answer is how long it will take. This is a very personal experience and one that will differ from labour to labour, women to women.
A small study which took place between July 2012 and February 2014, has shown that antenatal reflexology reduced labour duration for primiparous women who had experienced low back and / or pelvic girdle pain during their pregnancy, compared with usual antenatal care and footbaths.
There were three groups in the trial, one carried out normal antenatal care, the second 6 weekly 30-minute footbath treatments and a third group which had 6 weekly 30-minute reflexology treatments.
The results show an average duration of second stage of labour for the footbath and usual antenatal care group as almost two hours which is the cut off point for primiparas being classified as failure to progress. This increases the possibility of a surgical vaginal birth, a major risk factor for the health of the baby and maternal psychological and physiological wellbeing (Simms and Hayman, 2011). In this study the duration of the second stage of labour for the reflexology participants was 44.3 minutes shorter than the usual antenatal care group which was statistically significant. The difference in duration between the reflexology and footbath groups of 43.8 minutes was not significant. The small sample size was insufficient to demonstrate the true effect of reflexology versus a sham treatment and, thus, a larger study is warranted. However, the reduction in duration may be clinically important for labouring women and their babies.