Hidayat, A., Emila, O., Dewi, F., Sumarni, S. · Bali Medical Journal · 2021
SEFT significantly lowered the LF/HF ratio in the intervention group compared to the control group, indicating improved autonomic nervous system balance.
The LF/HF ratio comes straight from a heart-rate monitor's math, not from how someone describes her own nerves — it's a direct readout of the autonomic nervous system's balance between fight-or-flight and rest-and-digest signaling. Seeing that ratio shift after SEFT in women approaching childbirth is a concrete sign that a self-administered technique nudged the nervous system itself, not just their mood.
If borne out in larger studies, this points to a real possibility for expecting mothers everywhere: a technique that takes minutes to learn and nothing to buy, that a first-time mom nervous about labor could use on her own between appointments to help settle her nervous system as delivery approaches.
Given that LF/HF reflects autonomic balance, it would be valuable to pair it with a modern wearable tracking HRV continuously, rather than just at single clinic visits, across the weeks leading up to delivery, and to see whether the same women show calmer autonomic readings during labor itself. Adding a salivary cortisol sample at the same timepoints would help confirm whether the nervous-system shift travels together with the hormonal stress response, mapping the fuller physiological picture of tapping's effect on late pregnancy.
| Design | Controlled trial |
|---|---|
| Participants | 62 people |
| Population | first-time pregnant women (primipara) in Bantul District, Yogyakarta |
| Comparison group | non-equivalent control group |
| Outcome measures | LF/HF ratio (heart rate variability / autonomic nervous activity) |
| Journal | Bali Medical Journal |
| Year | 2021 |
| Country | Indonesia |
| Language | English |
| Method | EFT / tapping |
| Publication type | Study / trial |
| Verification | ✓ Confirmed against the primary source |
Hidayat, A., Emila, O., Dewi, F., & Sumarni, S. (2021). Spiritual Emotional Freedom Technique (SEFT) improved autonomic nervous activity in primipara. Bali Medical Journal. https://doi.org/10.15562/bmj.v10i1.2178
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 · How It Works (Biology)
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