Giving birth can involve pain, anxiety and fear for women, it can lengthen labour, putting both women and baby under more stress, and there’s the question of control. Now, there’s another way to lessen those effects – taking women to peaceful places such as a beach, snowy mountain or safari scenes with animals using virtual reality (VR) and a headset.
VR has grown from being solely for entertainment to use in education, simulation training and healthcare settings because of the availability of affordable, portable and high-quality headsets and software.
There are many off-the-shelf VR products for general mindfulness and meditation and bespoke products internationally for procedural pain in paediatrics, mental health and PTSD, but this bespoke product for labour is on its way to becoming a first for New Zealand.
Midwifery lecturer Dr Lorna Massov at Victoria University of Wellington researched the use of VR distraction technology to help improve the birthing experience for pregnant women. That research led to being awarded her PhD in 2022 with a thesis entitled Giving Birth on a Beach: Women’s Experiences of Using Virtual Reality in Labour.
“We’re offering a powerful, non-pharmacological aid that helps improve the birthing experience for pregnant women using the effectiveness of a virtual environment in a headset and as little medical intervention as possible. And it’s an aid where pregnant women can have more control,” says Massov.
It’s not just first-time mothers, either. Massov says there are a lot of women in Aotearoa with PTSD from their first birthing experience.
“There’s also an environmental element. A lot of women don’t like hospitals. We can change all that. We can literally distract their attention, remove them from that medicalised environment and improve their wellbeing during birth.”
“. . ..it helped the feeling of being at the hospital, I think, which is quite a sterile place, it [the VR] made it more colourful and entertaining. . .it takes you to a different world, it makes your mind wander, to dream. . .Well, I can rest here and still be in this world of colour and fun and beauty.” (Study participant)
Women giving birth have used tools ranging from music and visualisation to acupressure, massage or hypnosis, VR is another tool effective in reducing pain intensity and anxiety in research studies. Massov summed it up in an article for PLOS ONE: “Women identified VR as a form of escape from the medicalised hospital environment, from the boredom of a long, slow labour, and as a way of removing themselves from their present reality…bringing enjoyment to the experience, helping to relax the women and reduce anxiety while they were in labour…women perceived it as a positive experience, and it contributed to satisfaction with their birth.”
“. . .it was really nice at the beginning, I remember wearing it in the early stages of labour, I was like, oh my God, I totally forgot about the contractions, it was great. . . I didn’t even think about the pain, it was quite. . .absorbing. . .I just forgot about it [labour], I didn’t pay attention to it, it distracted me to an extent. . . “ (Study participant)
“It helped with the breathing and the relaxation which then helped with the pain. It was nice to have my headphones with my meditation there and then the VR. It was having options, staying in the right headspace. It was the right thing because then that was what helped with the pain, not getting stressed, not getting overwhelmed.” (Study participant)
Massov says that wanting to escape from labour pain is not a new finding but knowing that VR is a useful tool to aid escaping this pain hadn’t been established previously.
Where to from here? Massov’s findings have drawn interest within New Zealand, and have also been published internationally. There is interest from midwives and lead maternity carers, and Wellington Hospital management is keen on giving birthing mothers more choice through its ‘Optimising Birth’ initiative.
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