Squeeze a hair comb to cope with pain, NHS trust tells mothers-to-be

Under healthcare guidance, women giving birth are told to squeeze a comb to control pain during labor.

The bizarre technique has been suggested as a pain relief method by the Surrey and Sussex maternity unit NHS Healthcare Trust.

A post on the Instagram page states that the alternative ‘birth comb’ method can help women cope with contractions during childbirth.

This is said to be because the brush activates acupressure points in the folds of the palm, which distracts from pain and leads to the release of feel-good hormones.

However, the trust received mixed reactions to the so-called ‘labor hack’.

When a comb is squeezed in the palm of your hand, the pressure “distracts your brain” and “helps the body release endorphins,” the trust said in its post.

The so-called “hack” is based on the “pain gate control theory,” which claims that your brain can only focus on a certain number of sensations at a time, it wrote.

“The nerve endings in your hands are close to the surface of your skin, so the pressure signals they send to the brain can cancel out the pain signals sent to your brain by contractions or tension,” the post says.

Other methods that also work on this theory, according to the trust, include TENS machines, massage, sacral pressure and heat packs.

The post ends with an image of a woman in labor holding a comb and urges women to “be sure to pack one in your hospital bag.”

However, the advice, which was first posted six days ago, was not well received by everyone.

One social media user said: ‘Why don’t we just give laboring people enough pain relief? There’s an idea.’

Another added: “On behalf of me and the PTSD I still have from the lack of pain relief, please push the comb.”

However, others claimed that squeezing a comb was a helpful distraction from the pain during labor.

One said: ‘I didn’t believe a comb could help me through labor… but to my surprise… it really did. Of course also with the help of the wonderful midwives.’

A second said: ‘Without my combs I would be lost. I just used cheap plastic ones from Boots and they worked fine. I definitely recommend this to all my moms to become friends.”

The NHS recommends other alternative pain relief methods for labor including acupuncture, aromatherapy, homeopathy, hypnosis, massage and reflexology.

But most of these techniques have not been proven to provide effective pain relief, the health care industry notes.

The maternity unit of Surrey and Sussex NHS Healthcare Trust explains in its post that a comb is a ‘distraction technique rather than a method of pain relief’.

It added that there are ‘many different pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to pain relief during labour’.

The trust acknowledged that using a comb is ‘not for everyone’ and that different methods of relieving pain will work at different stages of labour.”

“But this is a technique we have been asked about and would like to share what local families have told us,” it added.

The trust said the Instagram post was shared as information to facilitate choice and personalization in early labor and how women can make choices and seek control without intervention.

Emily Neiman, a nurse-midwife at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, has previously explained that holding a comb can work for some women during labor.

In a 2019 articleshe wrote that its effects are thought to be due to the fact that it acts as a distraction, that acupuncture or that the brain can only process a limited number of sensations at a time – and therefore acts as something else to feel rather than contractions.

Ms. Neiman placed the hack in the same category as breathing techniques, walking around and using a birthing ball during labor.