The Tapping Evidence Base
Anxiety

The Effect of Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique (SEFT) Therapy on Reducing Labor Anxiety in Primigravida

Emilia, E. · Archives of The Medicine and Case Reports · 2024

Controlled trial 👥 26 participants ⚖️ vs. control group (n=13) vs treatment group (n=13) Preliminary ✓ Source-checked 📍 Indonesia
In plain English. 26 first-time pregnant women were split into a group getting Spiritual EFT sessions and an untreated group. The treated group's labor anxiety dropped noticeably while the untreated group's stayed exactly the same. It's a small quasi-experimental study, so larger and more rigorous replication would strengthen confidence.

What they found

26
26 first-time pregnant women were split into a group getting Spiritual EFT sessions and an untreated group.

Labor anxiety in the treatment group decreased from 29.83 (pretest) to 21.77 (posttest) after 3 SEFT sessions, while the control group's score remained unchanged (28.08 to 28.08).

How the study worked

Who took part primigravidas (first-time pregnant women) (n=26)
What they did In a controlled trial, a tapping group was compared against a separate comparison group.
Compared with control group (n=13) vs treatment group (n=13)
Measured with labor anxiety score

💡 Where this could help

Picture a woman pregnant for the first time, anxious about labor, in a setting where prenatal mental health support is minimal. If spiritually-framed tapping continues to calm labor anxiety this reliably, it could become something midwives teach in just a few sessions before delivery, giving first-time mothers a practice they can administer on themselves and carry with them into the delivery room itself, with no midwife needed to walk them through it in the moment.

🔬 What to study next

This is a tiny sample, so the first priority is simply a larger trial — but it's also a rare chance to pair anxiety scores with objective labor physiology: does salivary cortisol drop, does heart-rate variability rise, and does that translate into measurable birth outcomes like labor duration or reduced need for pain medication or epidural? Tracking maternal-infant bonding and postpartum mood in the weeks after delivery would show whether calmer labor carries forward into the fourth trimester.

The full record

DesignControlled trial
Participants26 people
Populationprimigravidas (first-time pregnant women)
Comparison groupcontrol group (n=13) vs treatment group (n=13)
Outcome measureslabor anxiety score
JournalArchives of The Medicine and Case Reports
Year2024
CountryIndonesia
LanguageEnglish
MethodSEFT (related Tapping method)
Publication typeStudy / trial
Verification✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Emilia, E. (2024). The Effect of Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique (SEFT) Therapy on Reducing Labor Anxiety in Primigravida. Archives of The Medicine and Case Reports. https://doi.org/10.37275/amcr.v5i1.478

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/Tapping. Explore more studies on Anxiety

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THE TAPPING EVIDENCE BASE Anxiety 26 participants WHAT THEY FOUND Labor anxiety in the treatment groupdecreased from 29.83 (pretest) to 21.77(posttest) after 3 SEFT sessions, while… Controlled trial · 26 participants Emilia · 2024 · evidence.thetappingsolution.com