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Background: Perineal pain following episiotomy affects mothers’ mental health and their quality of life. Using cooling gel pad is a new approach which is used for pain relief, but the pain related to episiotomy is still typically treated with oral analgesics. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of gel pad on post-episiotomy pain in primiparous women in Kamali Hospital of Karaj. Materials and Methods: This single-blind clinical trial was conducted on 60 primiparous women who referred for labor to Kamali Hospital of Karaj. The participants were randomly allocated to two groups: Those receiving gel pads (for 20 minutes four hours after labor and in case necessary, for up to 5 days) and the control (receiving the hospital routine). The two groups were evaluated in terms of episiotomy pain intensity through visual analogue scale (VAS) and analgesics usage. Results: The two groups did not show any significant differences in demographic features and other intervening variables. In terms of reduction in pain intensity, there were significant differences between the two groups 4 hours (p=0.002), 12 hours (p=0.009), and 5 days (p=0.000) after episiotomy. Analgesics usage, five days after delivery, in gel pad group was significantly lower than the control group (p<0.001) Conclusion: Using gel pad reduces the perineal pain intensity following episiotomy and decreases the need for using analgesics.

Keywords: Episiotomy, Gel pads, Pain relief, Perineal pain, Primiparous

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