Background: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of aroma hand\ntreatment in alleviating fatigue and promoting relaxation of mothers in their\nearly postpartum period. Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study with a\ntwo-group pretest-post-test design which used purposive sampling and\nnon-random assignment of 242 consenting Japanese early postpartum mothers\nwho were patients from a hospital maternity unit in Tokyo, Japan. The intervention\ninvolved a 20-minute aroma hand treatment using an effleurage\nmethod. The participants selected from 5 essential oils: pure lavender,\nylang-ylang, citron, rosewood, and sweet orange. Relaxation promotion and\nfatigue alleviation as the main outcomes were measured using self-administered\nvalid and reliable questionnaires. Statistical analysis was performed using the\ntwo-sample t-test, two-way factorial ANOVA, and simple main effect test.\nSPSS ver. 23.0 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA) was used for data analysis at a 5%\nsignificance level. Results: Of 242 participants (intervention group, n = 122;\ncomparison group, n = 120), 229 participants (intervention group, n = 115;\ncomparison group, n = 114) were analyzed per protocol. The intervention\ngroup showed a significant improvement in relaxation (t = 6.43, p < 0.001). A\nsignificant difference in the simple main effect test of relaxation (F = 37.58, p\n< 0.001) was found. However, there was no significant reduction in fatigue.\nThe majority (88.4%) of the participants indicated high satisfaction with the\naroma hand treatment, and 90.5% evaluated the length of intervention time as\nappropriate. Conclusions: The aroma hand treatment effectively promoted\nrelaxation of early postpartum mothers, but was less effective in alleviating\ntheir fatigue. Based on their high satisfaction rate, aroma hand treatment using\nessential oils may be considered effective in promoting relaxation of early\npostpartum mothers.
Loading....