Spinal Decompression

LABOR PAIN CONTROL STUDY

There is important new research which shows women can safely get significant labor pain relief early on in the course of labor. More than 3.5 million women go into labor each year, and almost half get an epidural anesthetic. Now this new study shows the pain killer which is injected into the spine does not interfere with normal delivery.
Susan Francis is about to give birth to her first child. “When I got here I was starting to have contractions which didn’t bother me but that quickly changed. I was in a bit of pain, and I wanted labor pain relief” says Susan.

When she went into labor, she knew that she wanted an epidural- here pain medicine is placed through a catheter into the area around the spinal cord. But currently, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that whenever feasible, obstetrical practitioners should delay the administration of epidural anesthesia in women having a baby for the first time until the cervix dilates more than 4 centimeters.
Some doctors and patients still worry that the epidural anesthetic will interfere with a woman’s ability to push, and that would end up prolonging labor and maybe even creating the need for a C-section.
As a result, women who request analgesia early in labor often get morphine-like injections into the vein. But often, this doesn’t work very well, and can cause a slowing of breathing in both the mother and the baby.
So when researchers looked at women having their first baby and compared those who got morphine like medicine through the IV versus an epidural early on in labor, the results were clear. The time it took for women to deliver vaginally was much shorter in the case of those getting an epidural.
Not just that, but those getting the epidural anesthetic reported overall less pain.
Dr. Douglass Moss, an OBGYN at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, says, “We see more of a pain relief in those using epidural anesthetic. We don’t see as much of a motor block, so the patient can move around and she can push more efficiently. In fact, I think we can tell our patients safely that if they are really uncomfortable, really in pain, the best thing to get is an epidural anesthetic. It’s the safest for the baby.”
The babies’ APGAR scores, the initial assessment of how the baby is breathing and moving, was better among those getting an epidural anesthetic.
And, the big result was that in those who got an epidural anesthetic, there was no increased risk of having a C-section.

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