The Effectiveness of Giving Acupressure to Reduce the Frequency of Nausea & Vomiting in First Trimester Pregnant Women: Literature Review

Abstract

Introduction: Pregnancy is often accompanied by many problems, the most common of which is nausea vomiting, usually starting between the 6th to 8th week of pregnancy and ending around the 12th week, however in some women it is possible that symptoms may continue until the 20th week. Excessive nausea vomiting can cause the baby to have low birth weight and experience premature birth. Acupressure is a complementary therapy that can relieve nausea, vomiting and is safe to use during pregnancy. Purpose: This study aims to examine more deeply the effectiveness of acupressure on reducing the frequency of nausea and vomiting in pregnant women. Method: This study was conducted with the literature review method starting with identifying journal articles that are relevant to keywords (pregnant women, acupressure, nausea and vomiting, emesis gravidarum). Article searches use Indonesian and English through data bases such as Google Scholar and PubMed, which are limited to 2017-2023 publications. The articles used in the preparation are national and international articles totaling 10 articles, namely 5 national articles and 5 international articles. Results: The screening results of 10 articles showed a significant effect on the administration of acupressure therapy at the point of Pericardium 6 which was able to reduce nausea vomiting in pregnant women. Conclusion: Nausea vomiting during pregnancy should not be ignored even in mild cases, there is a need for early detection and treatment to overcome nausea vomiting, if left untreated a small number of cases can continue until labor and also have an impact on the fetus. The results of a review of 10 articles showed that there was a significant effect of giving acupressure pericardium 6 on reducing the frequency of nausea vomiting in pregnant women.