kristen22's

advice

are there any other options given for pain during labor other than an epiduaral? i am really not wanting an epiduaral becuase of the fact that it enters through the spine, and i am so scared that theres a chance i might end up paralyzed for an inkling of a mistake. if there are any options, how are they administered? any help would be awesome. thank you so much in advance.

Because any medication given to a laboring mother can potentially affect the baby, the physician will weigh some important factors before recommending a pain-relief method for the patient.

Pain medications can be injected into a muscle, or, in many cases, into a vein by an IV. They rarely eliminate the pain completely, especially at the peak of a contraction. But they do make the discomfort more tolerable, which permits the laboring mother to rest more comfortably between contractions.

Here are the medicines and the effects it produces:

Systemic Analgesics - pain-relieving medicine that is injected into your vein or muscle. This medicine acts on your entire nervous system rather than just a certain part of your body.

Epidural Block - numbs or causes a loss of feeling in the lower half of your body. A specialist physician or anesthesiologist injects the block into the lower back.

Spinal Block - similar to an epidural and also provides good relief. The difference is that the medicine is only given one time in your back and it lasts only 1-2 hours.

Local Anesthesia - numbing medicine injected in the vaginal and rectal areas by your obstetrician at the time of delivery.

Hope this helps ya'
-Marine Wife

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