ISRAEL: New device offers a safe, non-invasive and natural alternative to painkillers and spinal anaesthesia during labour

Record ID: 397043

  • Title: ISRAEL: New device offers a safe, non-invasive and natural alternative to painkillers and spinal anaesthesia during labour
  • Date: 11th September 2009
  • Summary: BAT HEFER, ISRAEL (SEPTEMBER 2, 2009) (REUTERS) SAGIT DAHAN, WOMAN WHO HAS USED EASYLABOUR DURING HER LAST DELIVERY PLAYING WITH HER 10 MONTH OLD CHILD (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) SAGIT DAHAN, WHO USED EASYLABOUR DURING HER LAST DELIVERY, SAYING: "In the last delivery, with Talia (referring to her daughter), I used the EasyLabour device. I had very strong contractions, so I put
  • Embargoed: 26th September 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Health,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA2KDY1RZZEQU151RCOV5OHDJ2J
  • Story Text: The old biblical quote, "In sorrow though shall bring forth children," might become quaint, as a new Israeli device offers a natural and safe pain relief alternative to women in labour.
    The EasyLabour device, developed by Israeli ACU Medical Technologies, uses the principles of ancient Chinese acupressure to reduce the pain of contractions and delay, or cancel altogether, the need to use painkillers or spinal anaesthesia during delivery. After successful preliminary clinical trials, the device in now available in major Israeli hospitals and is building a name for itself among labour-coaches and midwives.
    The belt-like device contains a small engine operating six "fingers," which provide alternating circular pressure to six acupressure points in the sacrum area, on the woman's lower back. The most important of these acupressure points are called the "BL-32," which are actually two spots - one on each side of the lower spine. The BL-32 is well known to therapists for its help in the relief of delivery pains.
    "It gives a very gentle and comfort(able) massage pressure to the sacrum while contractions are being felt.... We can see here the BL-32, these two dimples, and the EasyLabour is providing the electro-mechanical acupressure to theses points," explained Yael Golombek, CEO of the company and the creator of the device.
    Golombek says the massage stimulates the nervous system, prompting it to release endorphins and opioids into the blood. This natural response allows the woman to have an increased pain tolerance, and actually decreases her ability to feel pain, Golombek says.
    The intensity of the pressure delivered by the device can be controlled by the woman, with the help of adjustable straps, by changing sitting positions or by using a birth-ball.
    According to Golombek, a former accountant, the idea for the device was born after a traumatic personal experience.
    "I gave four births, and my fourth one was very traumatic for me. This was a hard time, after getting the epidural (referring to the epidural anaesthesia injection), and I got a very serious infection, and I was hospitalised for 10 days. I couldn't see nor my baby, nor my family during that time, and I couldn't breast-feed my son. And actually it was the trigger of the invention of the EasyLabour," Golombek told Reuters Television.
    The infection, caused directly form the spinal injection, triggered Golombek to search for other, safer solutions for pain relief during birth. Referring to spinal anaesthesia as a "one way street," Golombek says she hopes to "buy more time," for the woman in labour to decide how she wants her delivery to proceed. The device might possibly free a woman from the need to use medication at all.
    In preliminary clinical trials soon to be published in a professional journal, the EasyLabour device was tested on 38 women in the latent, or initial, stage of labour in Laniado hospital in northern Israel. According to doctor Shay Kevorkian, who ran the trials, results were very impressive.
    "One of our main reasons was to try, as much as possible, to quit from giving women get medications such as Pethidine or Morphine, which are pain reliefs which might effect on the foetuses and the babies. And our results were fantastic. More than 67 (percent) of the women had improvement in their pain so that they didn't need any pain relief during the study. And 24 percent of the women claimed that they had also improvement in the pain, but in moderate (fashion)," Kevorkian told Reuters in Netanya.
    The trials have also shown, so far, that the device is completely safe for mother and foetus, causing no known side affects or monitor changes. The device was approved for the trials by the Israeli health ministry.
    Kevorkian emphasised that the trials, in which the women were asked to announce their pain level on a pain scale with and without the device, were performed on low-risk pregnancies. The doctor says the device's effect was only checked during early stages of delivery.
    Kevorkian says that test results show many women can use EasyLabour to replace painkillers early in the labour process. Kevorkian says further trials should check the affect of the device in later stages of the delivery, and it's capability of being a good alternative to replace spinal anaesthesia, which some consider dangerous to both mother and baby.
    Both Golombek and Kevorkian note that best results can be achieved with women who are familiar with the device before arriving to the hospital for their delivery, as the stress and pain levels they suffer can affect their wiliness to try an alternative that is new and not traditionally "medical".
    Sagit Dahan, a mother of three who works as a psychiatric nurse, is one of the women who used EasyLabour during delivery.
    "In the last delivery, with Talia (referring to her daughter), I used the EasyLabour device. I had very strong contractions, so I put on the device, and stayed with it for about 13 hours. In the beginning I was very sceptical, asking myself, 'what can it possibly do?', but when I had to use the toilet I had to take the device off, and the moment I did so, I understood how strong my contractions really are. I came running back to the room, put the device back on immediately and continue as usual. It was just amazing," Dahan said in her house in northern Israel, while playing with her 10-month-old daughter.
    Dahan, who heard about the device from her mother, ended up needing labour induction, but used no painkillers during her delivery. She says she plans to use the device again in a few months, when she is due to give birth to twins.
    The EasyLabour device is now in mass production, and was distributed to Israeli hospitals for a trial period. In Israel, pregnant women will not be charged for using the device in delivery rooms. Hospitals can either purchase EasyLabour for about $5,000 (USD) or rent it month by month for a lower fee.
    Golombek says she has been contacted by several medical centres in Europe and South America, and hopes to distribute the device worldwide.
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