Peripartum Pain Management

In 2021, the US had over 3.6 million deliveries, of which 32% were via Cesarean delivery. Improved monitoring and anesthetic techniques have improved the safety of peripartum care, enabling patients with more complex cardiopulmonary conditions to become pregnant. Each of these factors contribute to an increasing complexity of patients presenting to the labor and delivery ward each day. The accompanying fetal changes of pregnancy complicating these patients’ comorbidities makes labor pain management inherently challenging. In this chapter, we present strategies for managing peripartum pain in complex situations.