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Background: Acupressure is increasing in popularity as an alternative treatment in obstetrics and gynecology., Objectives: To summarize and assess evidence regarding the effects of acupressure on duration of labor and mode of delivery., Search Strategy: Four major databases and Google Scholar were searched using terms related to labor and acupressure, without language restrictions, up to November 2015., Selection Criteria: Randomized controlled trials were included if they examined the effect of acupressure at any acupoint during childbirth on duration of labor and/or mode of delivery., Data Collection and Analysis: Two reviewers independently extracted data. The outcome measures were duration of labor and mode of delivery. Random-effects models were used to pool results., Main Results: Thirteen studies were included in meta-analyses. Acupressure increased the chance of vaginal delivery when compared with placebo/no intervention (odds ratio [OR] 2.329, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.348-4.024, P=0.002; risk difference [RD] 8.9%, 95% CI 2.7%-15.0%, P=0.005). Acupressure decreased the duration of the active phase by 1.310 hours (95% CI -1.738 to -0.882; P<0.001) and the second stage of labor by 5.808 minutes (95% CI -1.615 to -0.807; P<0.001)., Conclusions: Acupressure could have a role in reducing the rate of cesarean delivery and decreasing the duration of labor in parturient women. However, there is a need for more reliable randomized controlled trials., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.)

Background: Numerous studies have been conducted on the effect of acupressure on labor pain, some of which have reported conflicting results. Thus, the present study was performed to critically review the previous studies related to the effect of acupressure administered during labor for relieving labor pain. Materials and Methods: In this study, databases of the Cochrane Central Register of the Controlled Trials, PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched from their establishment until November 5, 2019. All the Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) that had compared the use of acupressure with either placebo or nonintervention for relieving the labor pain were included in the study. Meta-analysis was performed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) software Version 2. The random-effects model was used for pooling the effect sizes across the included studies. The p value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Totally, 5853 primary papers were identified in the search, which were narrowed down to 22 studies. The results of meta-analysis showed that the acupressure decreased the labor pain in the intervention group vs. control (-1.67 [-2.29 to -1.05], z = -5.25, p < 0. 001) (Q-value = 788.98, p < 0.001, I-squared = 96.83). No publication bias was found in the included studies (Egger's regression intercept = -1.02, p = 0.76). Conclusions: Although the findings of this meta-analysis showed that the acupressure significantly reduced the labor pain during the active phase of labor compared to the nonintervention or placebo; considering that the quality of the included studies was generally moderate, rigorous RCTs with better design and higher quality are needed to obtain definitive conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]