High Satisfaction for Postpartum Self-Administered Pain Medication

HealthDay News — There is high satisfaction for a postpartum self-administered medication (SAM) program on postpartum wards, according to a study published online on December 20 in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.¹

Hugo Schérer, PharmD, from the Université de Montréal, and colleagues conducted a prospective mixed methods survey in a mother-and-child tertiary center. Included in the survey were women enrolled in the postpartum SAM program who had a live newborn. Newborns cohabited with their mother during their hospitalization and received breast milk once or more. Data were included for 314 mothers and 263 breastfed newborns.

The researchers found that 97% of SAM users appreciated the program. There was an 80% self-reported median overall improvement in pain. Traditional drug dispensing by the nurse would have been preferred by 18% of users who delivered vaginally and 32% who delivered via cesarean section (P =.009). Generally, drugs used in the SAM program were well tolerated. No worrisome adverse drug events were reported in the medical charts of newborns.

“The results suggest that the SAM program should remain a standard practice in our institution,” the authors write. “Some recommendations will be drawn to better tailor the SAM program to the needs expressed by the users.”

Reference

1. Schérer H, Bernier E, Rivard J, et al. Self-administered medications in the postpartum wards: A study on satisfaction and perceptions. J Eval Clin Pract. 2016. doi: 10.1111/jep.12666