How to Cite
Abstract
Background:
Cesarean delivery is prone to maternal hypothermia and shivering which are mainly caused by anaesthetics which impairs thermoregulatory processes and exposes the mother to a cool operating environment. Adequate warming measures are needed in order to ensure that maternal normothermia is maintained, enhance comfort, and avoid perioperative complications. There are different warming procedures, such as forced-air, warm intravenous fluids and thermal blankets, applied to treat hypothermia, but their efficiency effects and patient satisfaction have not been properly assessed.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study was used to determine the efficacy of various warming procedures in hypothermia and shivering reduction in 100 cases of cesarean section. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data which were examined by frequency distributions, percentages and chi-square (χ 2) tests to establish the relationship among warming methods, thermal comfort and occurrence of shivering. The level of significance of p that was found to be statistically significant was p = 0.05.
Findings:
The popular method was forced-air warming (45%), and this process proved to have better outcomes. Warmer interventions were noted to be effective in keeping the participants comfortable (approximately 75 percent) and 40 percent experienced mild to moderate shivering. Chi-square showed statistically significant correlation between the warming method and patient comfort (p = 0.026). These findings suggest that vigorous warming procedures are highly effective to increase maternal thermal stability and maternal satisfaction during cesarean sections.
Conclusion:
Active warming, especially forced-air systems and warmed IV fluids are useful in the treatment of intraoperative hypothermia and the reduction of postoperative shivering. They can enhance maternal safety and comfort, as well as the overall perioperative outcomes once implemented on a regular basis.
Recommendations:
To achieve patient-centered care hospitals must implement standardized warming protocols, offer ongoing staff education and track thermal outcomes. It is advised that further research is needed to investigate benefits of warming in the long term, as well as compare the costs and benefits of different warming methods.