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Analgesia and Anesthesia for Labor and Delivery
Book chapter   Open access

Analgesia and Anesthesia for Labor and Delivery

Cynthia A. Wong
The Global Library of Women's Medicine, Vol.2009
2009
DOI: 10.3843/GLOWM.10216
url
https://doi.org/10.3843/GLOWM.10216View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Anesthesiologists and anesthesia play a critical role in the modern labor and delivery unit. Cesarean deliveries require the participation of an anesthesia provider in the care of the parturient (and by extension, the fetus). In addition, the anesthesiologist plays a critical role in the care of many high-risk parturients. As part of the perinatal team, anesthesiologists contribute knowledge in the areas of invasive monitoring and the diagnosis and treatment of the extremes of hemodynamic and respiratory instability. Finally, the number of parturients choosing neuraxial (epidural and spinal) labor analgesia for uncomplicated labor and vaginal delivery has increased from 21% and 55% in small and large hospitals, respectively, in 1992 to 57% and 77% in 2001.1 At the author's institution, the rate of neuraxial labor analgesia in 2009 was 90%.

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