RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FATIGUE AND MATERNAL AND NEONATAL OUTCOMES: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY
Pregnancy. Labor. Fatigue.
Preparing for childbirth is an important pillar during pregnancy, as it contributes to promoting a balance of feelings and emotions. During labor, there are physiological changes that directly interfere with its evolution. Therefore, assessing and identifying early the presence of fatigue during labor can contribute to the prevention of negative outcomes for the mother and newborn. The objective of the study was to evaluate maternal fatigue and its relationship with golden hour, breastfeeding and the baby's birth conditions. In addition to analyzing how fatigue relates to preparation for childbirth and non-pharmacological methods for pain relief. This is an exploratory study with a quantitative approach, carried out in the pre-partum, childbirth and postpartum (PPP) sector of the Ana Bezerra University Hospital (HUAB), located in the municipality of Santa Cruz-RN, the population evaluated was 84 pregnant women admitted to the PPP delivery room of the aforementioned maternity hospital. The inclusion criteria were pregnant women considered to be at normal gestational risk above 35 weeks of gestation, with an adult age group, who are able to understand and answer the questions; and who do not present psychiatric disorders. The exclusion criteria were high-risk parturients, women who presented clinical instability during the research and those who no longer wanted to participate at any stage. Data collection was carried out between the months of July 2023 and February 2024, the parturient women who agreed to participate in the research answered a form applied by the researchers, containing questions related to their personal identification, gestational and anthropometric data, pre-delivery, assessment maternal information on fatigue at three different moments of labor, newborn data and breastfeeding. The variables used were: fatigue score, golden hour, difficulty breastfeeding, Apgar, non-pharmacological methods, preparation for childbirth, age, gestational age, marital status, profession, education. The data were applied to a database produced in Excel and were then inserted into the JASP Software to carry out the descriptive and statistical analysis of the study. Preliminary results demonstrate that the average fatigue score in the latent phase was 31.86 (SD=9.11), while the active phase had an average of 36 (SD=10.37). Regarding preparation for childbirth, it was seen that 25% of participants in the latent phase prepared for childbirth while 75% did not prepare. In the evaluation of the active phase, 18.7% of women in labor prepared for childbirth and 81.2% did not prepare. Regarding the use of non-pharmacological methods to relieve pain during the latent phase, an average of 98% of women used some method during labor, while 1.9% did not use any pharmacological method. Regarding the women who answered the questionnaire in the active phase, 87.5% used some pharmacological method and 12.5% did not use any method. The remaining variables are in analysis. This study has great relevance for obstetric care, allowing the development of specialized management during pre-delivery, childbirth and post-partum.