The Effect of Chewing Gum in Managing Labor Pain Intensity and Anxiety Level in Primiparous Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

State anxiety was not equal at baseline, so the post-intervention anxiety comparison relied on statistical adjustment. The trial excluded women who used Entonox or spinal or epidural analgesia during delivery, so it does not show the effect of gum when combined with common pain relief. Participants were primiparous women in spontaneous labor at two Iranian hospitals, so the results may not apply to other birth settings or women who have given birth before. The supplied text does not report whether participants or outcome assessors were blinded, and pain and anxiety were self-reported.

Do not conclude that chewing gum alone reliably reduces labor anxiety in all women. State anxiety differed between groups before the intervention, and the trial excluded women using other analgesia, so the anxiety result is not a clean test of gum added to usual care.