Epidural In Labor :: essays research papers

Epidural EpidemicDrugs in exertion Are They Really Necessary. . . or Even Safe?The practice session of epidurals is so common today that many perinatal professionals are calling the mid-nineties the age of the epidural epidemic. Believed by many in the medical profession to be safe and effective, the epidural seems now to be regarded as a veritable panacea for dealing with the pain of child brook. It is true that most women project pain during the course of labor. This pain provoke be intense and really real, even for those who have prepared for it. But pain is only genius of many possible sensations and experiences that characterize the experience of giving birth. Barbara Katz Rothman, a sociologist who studies birth in America, writes that in the medical management of childbirth, the experience of the mother is viewed by physicians as pain pain experience and pain to be avoided.1 Having experienced childbirth ourselves, we have great compassion for women in painful labors. However, we as well as aroma a responsibility to mothers and their babies to explore issues concerning the use of epidural anesthesia in labor issues that are seldom discussed prenatally.Several factors make the use of epidurals potentially hazardous. The Physician&8217s Desk Reference cautions that local anesthetics &8211 the type use in epidurals &8211 rapidly cross the placenta. When used for epidural blocks, anesthesia can cause varying degrees of maternal, fetal, and neonatal toxicity which can result in the following side effects hypotension, urinary retention, fecal and urinary incontinence, palsy of lower extremities, loss of feeling in the limbs, annoyance, backache, septic meningitis, slowing of labor, change magnitude need for forceps and vacuum deliveries, cranial nerve palsies, allergic reactions, respiratory depression, nausea, vomiting, and seizures.2 In addition, a piece of the catheter that delivers the drug into the duraregion of the back may break tally and be left in the woman, a dangerous risk that necessitates operative removal. One of the most well-known side effects of spinal anesthesia is a spinal headache. Depending on the amount of anesthetic used and how the catheter was placed, the headache can be mild or severe, lasting between ane and ten days after the birth. This is not how any of us wants to feel in our first days and hours with our newborn.Epidurals also have been linked to an general increase in operative deliveries cesareans, forceps deliveries, and vacuum extractions. A meta-analysis of the effects of epidural anesthesia on the rate of cesarean deliveries was undertaken by a crowd of physicians who examined, categorized, and analyzed all available literature.