QuestionHi my name is Klee Prim. I am 21 years old and will be expecting my first child in February. Currently I am researching about the use of labor drugs to ease the pain during labor. I have come up with 10 questions below for my research paper for class. I would greatly appreciate it, if you take some time off your busy schedule to answer them for me. This information will also help me for when I go into labor.
Whether to use pain relief drugs during labor?
1. Do you recommend the uses of pain relief drugs during labor? Why or why not?
2. Are there any known dangers? If so, what are they?
3. Would you use them yourself if the pain was unbearable?
4. If you have ever used them or would not mind using them during labor, which one would you prefer to use?
5. Are there any post side affects?
6. What alternatives are there to relieving pain during labor?
7. Are there any known dangers to the baby when using drugs during childbirth? If so, what are they?
8. Are there any long-term effects to the child or mother?
9. What is the most common labor drug used today?
10. Are all women open to these drugs or are there any health problems that should be taken into consideration?
AnswerThere is no reason to have pain during labor. There are safe methods to releave pain, and I would recommend that a method be used as soon as you are in active labor. The most popular method is the epidural anesthesia. In this, medicine is injected into the area around the spinal canal. This numbs you below the waist. A catheter is placed into your urinary bladder as well and you will be able to relax and enjoy the labor. It has minimum effects and does not cause any harmful effects to the baby either. You cannot get out of bed after the epidural, and you can have a continuous epidural that will last until the baby is born. If you must have a cesarean section, the epidural can be continued throughout the operation. If you, for some reason, do not want the epidural, you can have interrmittant doses of a short acting barbiturate called Stadol which will "take the edge off". It, too, has minimal side effects but can make you drowsy. Demeral will also have this effect, but is rarely used nowadays. There are no long term side effects to the child or the mother with anesthesia, but at times the mother can get a headache or there can be inflammation to the site of the injection. Sometimes the epidural lasts longer than intended. There are also "psychoprophylactic" methods of pain relief: hypnosis, lamaze breathing techniques, positional changes, using a beach ball to rub the back, etc. In this day and age, there is no reason to avoid anesthesia for pain relief in labor. Most patients who have had many children and who have never used the epidural have realized that it is a good method and they wonder why they have not tried it before.
