A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Infra-Red Lamp Therapy on Healing of Episiotomy Wound among Postnatal Mothers in Selected Hospitals at Kolar District, Karnataka

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of infrared lamp therapy on healing of episiotomy wound among postnatal mothers by comparing experimental and control group scores.
Methods and materials: The experimental (pretest–posttest control group) design was adopted for the study. Postnatal mothers those who were admitted in S.N.R Hospital taken as the experimental group and Postnatal mothers those who were admitted in R.L. Jalappa Hospital taken as the control group. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the 80 postnatal mothers as sample (40 in experimental group and 40 in control group).Socio demographic data was collected by using structured interview schedule and episiotomy wound was assessed by using observational checklist (REEDA scale). The data obtained were analyzed and interpreted in terms of the objectives and hypothesis of the study by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The level of significance was set at 0.05 and 0.01 levels.
Results: There was significant difference between the episiotomy wound healing among postnatal mothers in pretest and posttest scores in both the groups (t=44.08, P<0.01 in experimental and t=16.94, P<0.01 in control group). There was no significance in the pretests of the both group (t= 2.032, P>0.01).There was significant difference between the posttest of experimental and control group (t=9.352, P<0.01).
Conclusion: This study showed that as the day progresses, the episiotomy wound healing is faster in experimental group than the control group among postnatal mothers and the application of infra red lamp therapy was effective on healing of episiotomy wound.