Labour analgesia and obstetric outcomes

Labour analgesia and obstetric outcomes.

Neuraxial analgesic techniques are the gold standards for pain relief during labour and delivery. Despite the increased use and known benefits of neuraxial labour analgesia, there has been significant controversy regarding the impact of neuraxial analgesia on labour outcomes. Review of the evidence suggests that effective neuraxial labour analgesia does not increase the rate of Caesarean delive...

Obstetric Analgesia and Anæsthesia: Their Effects upon Labour and the Child

Obstetric analgesia: a comparison of patient-controlled meperidine, remifentanil, and fentanyl in labour.

BACKGROUND To compare the analgesic efficacy of remifentanil with meperidine and fentanyl in a patient-controlled setting (patient-controlled analgesia, PCA). METHODS Parturients (n=159) were randomly assigned to receive remifentanil (n=52), meperidine (n=53), or fentanyl (n=54). Pain scores and an observer sedation scores were assessed hourly. Fetal outcome was evaluated with Apgar score, co...

Obstetric and psychological characteristics of women choosing epidural analgesia during labour: A cohort study

OBJECTIVES To investigate the obstetric and psychological characteristics of women who opt to use epidural analgesia (EDA) during labour and the impact of participating in labour preparation courses on women's decisions to use EDA. DESIGN Longitudinal cohort study. SETTING Akershus University Hospital, Norway. POPULATION 2596 women with singleton pregnancies and intended vaginal delivery....

Advances in labour analgesia

women. The ideal labour analgesia technique should dramatically reduce the pain of labour, while allowing the parturient to actively participate in the birthing experience. In addition, it should have minimal effect on the fetus or the progress of labour. New labour analgesia techniques approach this goal. This lecture will review these new methods of pain relief for the parturient and will hig...