Effect of acupressure by Sea-Bands on nausea and vomiting of pregnancy

Abstract

Objective: To determine the effect of continuous acupressure at P6 applied by Sea-Bands with acupressure buttons on the frequency and severity of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy during the 1 st trimester.

Design: A two-group, quasi-experimental, posttest-only and posttest-repeated measure.

Setting: Seventeen medical clinics or offices in southern Michigan.

Participants: Convenience sample of English-speaking, healthy pregnant women in their 1 st trimester, who had at least one episode of nausea, vomiting, or both before their prenatal clinic/office visit where they were recruited. After being accepted for the study, the women were randomly assigned to treatment or placebo groups.

Intervention: Treatment group 1 applied SeaBands with acupressure buttons to both wrists for 4 days and removed the Sea-Bands for 3 subsequent days. Placebo group 2 applied the Sea-Bands without acupressure buttons to both wrists on the same time schedule as group 1.

Main outcome measure: Self-report daily diaries of the number of times per day that participants experienced nausea, the severity of nausea, the number of vomiting episodes per day, and the severity of vomiting.

Results: Mann-Whitney U procedures revealed that the treatment group had significantly less frequency and severity of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy while wearing the Sea-Bands than did the placebo group. The treatment group also had significantly less frequency and severity of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy while wearing the SeaBands than when not wearing the Sea-Bands.

Conclusions: Sea-Bands with acupressure buttons are a noninvasive, inexpensive, safe, and effective treatment for the nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.