Epidural – An Anesthetic For Effective Relief From Labor Pains

The need for anesthetics during delivery of a mother is needed to avoid the mother experiencing such excruciating painful sensations. However, although there are many routes and methods to provide anesthetics, the use of epidural anesthetics is the most widely used method. For some mothers, they would not like to have anesthetics induced in order for them to experience the entire labor experience as a whole without missing out a single data about it.

However, for those would want to have epidural anesthesia, here are the facts about such a procedure.

• First, the mother is informed about such a procedure which is to be performed prior to the actual labor. Once approval has been acquired, only then will such a procedure be allowed or approved for the patient.
• Pre-labor, the mother is assisted to a C-position or shrimp position. This position would aid in easy induction of the anesthetic. The mother is asked to fully arc her back while in this position in order to promote adequate entry or spacing between the L3 and L4 discs.
• A spinal needle is used because compared to other needles, this needle has the desired circumference and length needed to successfully reach the spinal column.
• Once the needle has been inserted, spinal fluid is withdrawn first to make sure that the tip or bevel of the needle has successfully reached the spinal column and has not punctured any surrounding blood vessels. In order to determine this, once fluid is withdrawn, it should be noted if the fluid is clear and does not have any tinges or stains of red.
• Then, the anesthetic is injected. Right after induction, the patient is assisted to a prone position right away before the effects of the anesthesia takes effect.
• Then the doctor assesses if any sensations are still felt from chest going down to the mother’s legs. Once any sensation is no longer felt, the procedure may commence.

However, there are also mothers who would like to have pain sensation treated even after giving birth because of the abdominal pain that is still present not just during labor but even after successful delivery. Once the effects of the epidural anesthesia has subsided, the mother will start to experience a tingling sensation and pain slowly entering.