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Current Management of Labor Pain
Book chapter

Current Management of Labor Pain

Cynthia A. Wong
Pain in Women
Oxford University Press
04/01/2013
DOI: 10.1093/med/9780199796410.003.0008

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Abstract

Childbirth pain is arguably the most severe pain most women will endure in their lifetimes. James Young Simpson pioneered the modern era of childbirth analgesia in 1847 when he administered ether, and later chloroform, to women in childbirth. Early in the 20th century Dämmerschlaf , or “twilight sleep,” was introduced, and the use of singleshot spinal, lumbar, and caudal epidural, paravertebral, and pudendal nerve blocks for obstetric analgesia were described. Well over half a century ago the first published report of continuous caudal analgesia for childbirth launched the use of continuous neuraxial (spinal and epidural) analgesia for labor and delivery analgesia. Current management of childbirth analgesia includes an array of regional nerve blocks, systemic analgesic, and nonpharmacologic techniques. Pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic techniques can be used together or alone. This chapter will summarize the physiology of childbirth pain, labor, and delivery analgesic techniques, and it will briefly describe the effects of labor analgesia on the mother and infant.

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