Högskolan i Skövde

Background: About 30% of women in labour suffer from lower back pain. Studies of sterile water injectionsfor management of low back pain have consistently shown this approach to be effective. The objective ofthis evidence-based guide is to facilitate the clinical use of sterile water injections to relieve lower backpain in labouring women.Methods: To identify relevant publications our search strategy was based on computerised literaturesearches in scientific databases. The methodological quality of each study was assessed using themodified version of the Jadad scale, 12 studies were included.Findings: Recommendations regarding the clinical use of sterile water injections for pain relief in labourare reported in terms of the location of injection administration, various injection techniques, number ofinjections used, amount of sterile water in each injection and adverse effects.Discussion: Both injection techniques provide good pain relief for lower back pain during labour. Thesubcutaneous injection technique is possibly less painful than the intracutaneous techniqueadministered, but we are unsure if this impacts on effectiveness. The effect seems to be related tothe number of injections and the amount of sterile water in each injection.Conclusion: The recommendation at present, based on the current state of knowledge, is to give fourinjections. Notwithstanding the differences in injection technique and number of injections the methodappears to provide significant levels of pain relief and can be repeated as often as required with noadverse effect (apart from the administration pain) on the woman or her foetus.