Akbarzadeh 2014.

Methods	3‐arm parallel randomised control trial of 150 women.
Participants	18–35 years of age, term pregnancy, singleton pregnancy, and healthy fetal membranes, no history of medical, surgical, or mental problems, no pregnancy complications. The participants’ uterine contractions started spontaneously and, at admission, the contractions occurred every 5–10 minutes and cervical dilatation was 3 cm to 4 cm.
Interventions	1. Acupressure: the participants were located in the appropriate position and BL32 acupoint was pressed. Pressure was applied by the beginning of contractions (3 to 4 cm cervical dilatation) and continued during the transitional phase of labour (7 cm to 8 cm cervical dilatation), up to the end of the first stage. When the contractions began, the point was pressed gently for 30 seconds. The researcher applied pressure by the right and the left thumbs was measured as 1405 and 1277 mmHg, respectively. The pressure was applied by the beginning and stopped at the end of the contractions. 2. Doula/supportive care: the doula (the researcher) was constantly beside the mother from maternity ward admission (beginning of the active phase of labour at 3 cm to 4 cm cervical dilatation) to the end of the second stage of labour. Supportive measures classified into psychological and emotional, educational, and physical categories were offered to the mother. Psychological and emotional support included touching, empathy, compassion, encouraging the mother to continue co‐operation in the labour process, reassurance, taking mother’s hands, maintaining eye contact, creating a sense of trust and confidence, continuous talking, and reduction of fear during labour. Educational support included informing the mother about the natural process of childbirth and answering her questions. Finally, physical support included cooling the mother, satisfying her hunger and thirst, and helping her change the positions in various stages of labour. These positions were as follows: the mothers followed activity positions, such as straddling a chair, leaning, tailor stretching, and lunging for 20 minutes at 3 cm to 8 cm dilatation. Then, they were required to follow relaxing positions, such as semi sitting and side‐lying for 10 minutes. At 8 cm to 10 cm dilatation, the mothers followed fetal head descent positions, such as dangling, squatting, and hands and knees. 3. Routine care.
Outcomes	VAS 10‐point scale following 30‐minute intervention, mode of birth.
Notes	Location: Iran. Setting: delivery ward. Authors were contacted seeking clarification of methods of randomisation, no response obtained.