Emotion-tremor coupling in Wilson's disease: EEG microstate C as a marker of salience network dysregulation.

Labour pain, though physiological, can become so intense that it disrupts the normal progression of childbirth. Excessive pain may contribute to abnormal uterine contractions, prolonged labour, and disturbances in maternal acid–base balance, increasing the risk of instrumental delivery, episiotomy, or even emergency caesarean Sect []. These outcomes not only affect maternal and neonatal health but can also undermine women’s birth experiences and lead to complications such as perinatal depression and delayed lactation [, ]. Therefore, providing safe and effective labour analgesia is a critical component of obstetric care. Currently, labour pain management strategies fall into two main categories: pharmacological and non-pharmacological. While pharmacological methods, such as epidural anaesthesia, are highly effective, they are not without controversy. Adverse effects—such as prolonged labour, impaired maternal mobility, and neonatal respiratory depression []—may limit their universal use, particularly in low-resource or out-of-hospital settings. Non-pharmacological methods, in contrast, are generally safe, cause minimal physiological disruption, and avoid pharmacological side effects []. However, these methods often have limited analgesic effects [, ]. Many non-pharmacological analgesic interventions are multimodal, making it difficult to distinguish the contribution of individual components or clarify their underlying mechanisms []. This issue is particularly relevant in labour pain management, where breathing, movement, attention modulation, and emotional support are often combined. Examining specific techniques with plausible neurocognitive mechanisms may therefore help refine and optimise non-pharmacological approaches to labour analgesia.