by Wesley Deans

Created on: March 04, 2009

Today's Parent: Epidural or Not?

The hot topic had to do with whether or not women should receive epidural injections during their pregnancy. Women undergo intense pain with extreme contractions that occur throughout labor.
It would seem there would only be advantages to an injection that can considerably reduce the pain of a childbearing mother. There are considerable drawbacks to the medication, as some women can attest.

An epidural injects anesthesia that blocks the transmission of nerve signals in or close to the spinal cord. With the nerve signals blocked the pain signals will go away, but normal sensation will also diminish. Women who choose an epidural sometimes report that it takes much longer to give birth.
They lose their feel for using their contractions to properly push the baby out. Women who have full sensation can feel what they need to do to push the child out. The increased sensation allows a woman to make more effective pushes during her contractions.

Doctors may also have trouble properly inserting the injection. Christine Iacobucci spoke about her experience with the epidural. "It took repeated tries to get it in.' As a result, her back was badly bruised. It was more painful than any other aspect of the childbirth.'" I can barely imagine what it would be like to lie perfectly still, while undergoing intense contractions, to allow a sharp needle to be thrust into your back. Add that experience with the fact that injections can cause bruising and create post-childbirth pain and you have a difficult experience for any woman giving birth.

Once a woman receives an epidural she will be confined to a bed and hooked up to an IV. This allows the doctors to more closely monitor the health of the woman and potential new born. Without the epidural there is less necessity for invasive procedures such as IV and electronic monitoring. Some women may prefer the increased pain over the constant prodding and poking by doctors and nurses.

It is an interesting debate whether to use the pain-relieving injections or not. On one hand a female can save herself from some of the most extreme pain a person could undergo. On the other hand there can be complications from undergoing an epidural injection.
Some experts would argue that anesthesia is dangerous and can create allergic reactions in patients.
Anesthesia has been known to create long-term health hazards, such as heart, liver, and brain injury. Is the woman willing to take on the risks of an anesthetic injection in order to receive a temporary pain-relief during childbirth? Until less-invasive pain-relief methods are discovered that is the question each woman will have to ask when thinking about an epidural.

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