Therapeutic effect of manual massage on early postpartum rectus abdominis separation and postpartum depression

Table 1 Comparison of baseline data, n (%)

Baseline data	Group S (n = 35)	Group L (n = 35)	t/χ2	P value
Age (yr)	28.20 ± 3.76	29.66 ± 3.04	1.786	0.078
Body mass index (kg/m2)	23.05 ± 2.78	22.76 ± 2.75	0.439	0.662
Delivery method			0.057	0.811
Cesarean section	17 (48.57)	16 (45.71)
Spontaneous labor	18 (51.43)	19 (54.29)
Pelvic floor muscle strength grading			0.473	0.789
Level 3	10 (28.57)	11 (31.43)
Level 4	19 (54.29)	20 (57.14)
Level 5	6 (17.14)	4 (11.43)

Table 2 Comparison of distance between rectus abdominis muscles

Group	n	3 cm above umbilicus		Navel midline		3 cm below umbilicus
		Before treatment	After treatment	Before treatment	After treatment	Before treatment	After treatment
Group S	35	3.24 ± 0.51	1.86 ± 0.24	3.75 ± 0.66	2.01 ± 0.33	2.23 ± 0.56	1.71 ± 0.32
Group L	35	3.23 ± 0.93	1.65 ± 0.31	3.67 ± 1.09	1.78 ± 0.18	2.43 ± 0.66	1.55 ± 0.19
t value		0.056	3.169	0.371	3.777	1.367	2.486
P value		0.996	0.002	0.711	< 0.001	0.176	0.015

Table 3 Comparison of abdominal circumference index

Group	n	3 cm above umbilicus		Navel midline		3 cm below umbilicus
		Before treatment	After treatment	Before treatment	After treatment	Before treatment	After treatment
Group S	35	83.83 ± 7.08	82.86 ± 7.67	85.73 ± 7.93	84.43 ± 7.73	87.26 ± 7.41	86.17 ± 7.84
Group L	35	83.29 ± 7.26	79.60 ± 4.75	84.39 ± 7.36	80.90 ± 5.10	86.40 ± 7.53	82.79 ± 5.43
t value		0.315	2.138	0.733	2.255	0.482	2.097
P value		0.754	0.036	0.466	0.027	0.632	0.039

Table 4 Comparison of lower back pain visual analog scale scores

Group	n	Lower back pain VAS score
		Before treatment	After treatment
Group S	35	2.57 ± 1.29	1.26 ± 0.74
Group L	35	2.51 ± 1.36	0.77 ± 0.59
t value		0.19	3.063
P value		0.85	0.003

VAS: Visual analog scale.

Table 5 Comparison of Edinburgh postpartum depression scale scores

Group	n	EPDS score
		Before treatment	After treatment
Group S	35	9.86 ± 2.37	9.03 ± 1.28
Group L	35	9.92 ± 2.41	8.24 ± 1.06
t value		0.105	2.812
P value		0.917	0.006

EPDS: Edinburgh postpartum depression scale.