Abstract :
Hydrotherapy is an effective, alternative intervention that can be used by care providers as a nonpharmacological pain relief method to help laboring women cope with labor. A wide variety of pain relief measures are available to women in labor. This study assessed nurses' knowledge about the use of hydrotherapy as a nonpharmacologic pain-relief techniques during labor and identify the barriers of hydrotherapy to be used in Women's Health Center, Assiut University Hospitals, Egypt. Descriptive study design was utilized in this study. Subjects and methods included all nurses who work in obstetrics department, Women's Health Center, Assiut University Hospitals were included in the study. They are all 120 nurses. This study provides nurses knowledge of the state of hydrotherapy among and the science of the effects of hydrotherapy with labor and delivery. The physiologic mechanism, benefits, practice implications, and barriers of the use of hydrotherapy during labor all are assessed by the nurses during implementation of this study through a structured self administrative questionnaire. Results of This study provides nurses knowledge about using hydrotherapy during labor. They showed that approximately three quarter (73.3%) of the participant nurses' knowledge were adequate , while (26.7) of nurses had inadequate knowledge about the use of hydrotherapy in labor. Nurses encounter that hospital policy(100%) followed by environmental factors(52%) are the major barriers to the use of hydrotherapy in labor. Effort required for hydrotherapy(48%) and human resources (41%) are indicated to be equivalent barrier of the use of hydrotherapy in labor. Their knowledge represented (26.7%) and not considered to be a major contributing barrier to the use of hydrotherapy during labor. We concluded that providing hydrotherapy requires a supportive environment, adequate nursing staffing , applied polices and collaborative relationships among the health care team.