TITLE:
Aromatherapy for Laboring Women: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
AUTHORS:
Taizhen Luo, Meiling Huang, Huaan Xia, Yingchun Zeng
KEYWORDS:
Aromatherapy; Laboring Women; Randomized Controlled Trials; Meta-Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.4 No.3,
March
4,
2014
ABSTRACT: Aromatherapy is the therapeutic use of oil
from herbs, flowers, and other plants. The aim of this meta-analysis was to
quantify the effectiveness of aromatherapy for laboring women. We searched five
electronic databases till November 15th 2013 including those Chinese and English
language articles. A total of 4 eligible studies were identified. Aromatherapy
was effective in reducing the length of labor, but there were no statistically
significant effects in the use of pharmacological analgesia, spontaneous
vaginal delivery, caesarean delivery and assisted vaginal birth. Due to the limited number of articles identified, the
evidence is not sufficiently convincing that aromatherapy is an effective
therapy for laboring women.