Digital technology-assisted labor support in delivery rooms on maternal pain and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Labor pain and anxiety are important factors affecting maternal childbirth experience. Digital technology-assisted labor support, such as virtual reality (VR) analgesia and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted fetal heart rate monitoring interpretation, has gained increasing attention as non-pharmacological interventions in recent years, but quantitative synthesis of randomized controlled trial evidence remains limited. We aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of digital technology-assisted labor support in delivery rooms on maternal pain and anxiety.

METHODS

PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science were systematically searched from inception to March 2026. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing digital technology-assisted labor support (VR or AI-assisted systems) with routine care on maternal outcomes were included. Two reviewers independently performed study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment using the Cochrane ROB2.0 tool. Meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.4 software, calculating standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

RESULTS

Six RCTs involving 492 parturients were included. Meta-analysis of four studies (362 parturients) showed that digital technology-assisted labor support significantly reduced maternal pain intensity (SMD = -1.49, 95% CI: -2.55 to -0.42, p = 0.006, I 2 = 95%) and anxiety levels (SMD = -2.87, 95% CI: -4.37 to -1.36, p = 0.0002, I 2 = 97%) compared with routine care. Descriptive findings from two studies not included in the meta-analysis (within-group pre-post comparison and crossover design) were consistent with these results. The overall risk of bias of included studies was moderate.

CONCLUSION

Current evidence suggests that digital technology-assisted labor support in delivery rooms, particularly immersive virtual reality interventions, can significantly reduce maternal pain intensity and anxiety levels. Due to the limited number of included studies and high heterogeneity, these findings should be interpreted with caution, and more high-quality, large-sample RCTs are needed for further validation.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (Registration number: CRD420261336637).