Abstract

Oxygen- a life saving drug and a “Uterine tonic”. Major Etiology of postpartum uterine atony- hypoxia. Enhancing oxygen delivery to myometrium through additional inhaled oxygen (active management of third and fourth stage of labour) may improve uterine contractions, thereby reduces the duration of labour and blood loss too. Objective: The main Objectives of the Study is to evaluate the effect of Oxygen Inhalation on the Vaginal Blood Loss among the mothers in the experimental group in compare with the control group. Methodology: The research approach & design selected for this study was Quantitative approach and Experimental design. The setting was Labor Room and the sample size were 50 (25 in control and 25 in experimental group) selected through simple random sampling technique. General profile including the socioeconomic status of the subjects was assessed using kuppuswamy’s, socioeconomic status scale 2012. Experimental group received 8L/min of oxygen via face mask for a period of two hours during third and fourth stage of labor, whereas the control group inhaled the room air alternatively. Vaginal blood loss was weighed using Kelly’s pad followed by weighing the soaked vaginal pads after episiotomy suture done. Result and Findings: The findings of the study shows that the mean vaginal blood loss at the end of first hour was 259.6ml ± 52.34 and 228.2ml ± 30.88 for the control and experimental group respectively, the calculated‘t’ value is 2.31 shows the ‘p’ value 0.029 was statistically significant. The mean vaginal blood loss at the end of second hour was 136.08ml ± 25.56 and 84.6ml ± 15.54 for the control and experimental group respectively, the calculated ‘t’ value is 9.45 shows the ‘p’value 0.000* was statistically significant. Therefore it was inferred that there is a positive effect of oxygen inhalation on vaginal blood loss among the mothers in the third and fourth stage of labor in the experimental group. There was a positive correlation between the duration of third stage of labor and the amount of vaginal blood loss score r = 0.482 in experimental group. In relation to the hypothesis testing, it shows that there was a significant effect of oxygen inhalation on vaginal blood loss among mothers in the experimental and control group. Conclusion: Thus above study results highlights & proved statistically that there was a positive effect of oxygen inhalation on vaginal blood loss among the mothers in the third and fourth stage of labor