Labour Analgesia
摘要
Pain relief for a laboring parturient is an important part of obstetric care. It can be provided by a combination of regional, systemic, or inhalational techniques. In recent years, availability of safer local anaesthetics, short acting drugs, patient-controlled analgesia devices, and ultrasound have revolutionised obstetric analgesia. Several non-pharmacological options like temperature modulation, hydrotherapy, massage, acupuncture, aromatherapy, hypnosis, and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) are available for labor analgesia. The analgesic benefit is variable, but all have the advantage of avoiding drugs and their associated placental passage. Central neuraxial block is the preferred regional anesthesia technique. We have discussed various options for analgesia for relieving pain associated with labor in this chapter.