The Effect of Music on the Pain and Anxiety in Episiotomy

INTRODUCTION: Labor is known to cause severe pain; therefore, it can lead to significant stress, anxiety, and even depression. We investigated the effect of listening to music from the end of the active stage of labor until the completion of episiotomy repair on pain, anxiety, stress, and depression levels. METHODS: The study includes 90 pregnant patients that were planned to have vaginal delivery between 2017 and 2019. We played music starting from the end of the active phase of the 1sth stage of labor until the completion of the repair of restrictive mediolateral episiotomy. The subjects were randomly divided into three groups: classical music (n = 30), Turkish pop music (n = 30), and control group (n = 30). The control group was only provided with a headset that would reduce noise. We used DASS-42 to evaluate stress, anxiety and depression, and the Visual Analogue Scale for Pain (VAS) to evaluate pain. We compared the results of the three groups. RESULTS: The anxiety and depression scores of the three groups were not significantly different; however, stress findings were significantly lower in the Turkish pop music group. We observed that this result was majorly associated to the working status of the mother. The pain results of the three groups were not significantly different. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Music should be noted that this effect is especially prominent when the music is in the patient's native tongue. Also, we conclude that playing music is not as effective as expected in relieving pain caused by episiotomy.