Essential oils and aromatherapy

Research on aromatherapy in labor mostly asks whether inhaled or applied scents change how women rate pain and anxiety. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized trials look at aromatherapy for labor pain and for anxiety during the first stage of labour, and individual trials examine specific oils, including sweet orange and Rosa damascena, in first-time mothers.

Aromatherapy also appears inside larger comparisons. A network meta-analysis and a Bayesian network meta-analysis weigh the efficacy and safety of several non-pharmacological methods against one another, and an overview of systematic reviews and a review of massage, reflexology and other manual methods place scent-based approaches in the wider field of labour pain relief. Related reviews cover electrical nerve stimulation as another non-drug option.

Questions parents commonly bring include which oils are used, how they are delivered, whether they are safe in labor, and whether they work as well as other comfort measures. The research looks at both effectiveness and safety, and trials differ in the oils, methods and outcomes they measure.

In class, an educator may want slides that name the specific oils studied rather than speak of aromatherapy in general, and that separate pain ratings from anxiety ratings. The papers below are the ones the Hub tracks on this topic.