"Painless delivery" originated in foreign countries, with a history of 100 years. At present, it has been widely used in foreign countries, with the labor analgesia rate of > 85% in the United States and > 90% in the United Kingdom. Painless delivery has been carried out in many hospitals in China, and some of them have accounted for 30% ~ 40% of natural delivery. Expectant mothers can safely choose painless delivery, which is a simple, safe and mature technology.
At present, the methods of labor analgesia include non-drug analgesia and drug analgesia. Non-drug analgesia includes mental comfort, breathing and water delivery. Its advantage is that it has no influence on labor and fetus, but its analgesic effect is poor. Drug analgesia includes nitrous oxide inhalation, intramuscular injection of analgesic drugs, labor analgesia in spinal canal, etc.
Intraspinal labor analgesia is the most effective method of all labor analgesia methods so far, which is implemented by experienced anesthesiologists. After successful lumbar puncture, the anesthesiologist injected a small amount of local anesthetics or opioids into the subarachnoid space, and placed a thin catheter in the epidural space. One end of the catheter is connected with an electronic analgesia pump, so the parturient can control the medication according to the degree of pain (the anesthesiologist has set an hour limit, so there is no need to worry about overdose). Analgesic pump can be used continuously until the end of labor. During the whole process, the anesthetic concentration is low, which is equivalent to1/5 ~110 during cesarean section anesthesia. Strong controllability and high safety, hardly affecting the activities of lying-in women. The parturient is conscious and can actively cooperate and participate in the whole delivery process. This painless delivery method is the most widely used and the most ideal effect in major hospitals at present.
When giving parturient labor analgesia anesthesia, we should consider the principle of not affecting the labor process and fetal safety. Through strict administration of analgesic drugs, the transmission of pain nerves during labor can be blocked without affecting the regular contraction of uterus, thus avoiding or alleviating labor pain and minimizing labor pain, but retaining uterine contraction and slight pain.
"Painless delivery" is not that the whole labor process is painless. For the sake of safety, at present, most hospitals in China block the spinal canal when the cervix is open to 2 ~ 3 cm. If the maternal mental state is tense, fearful, anxious and lacking in self-confidence, it will also increase the sensitivity to pain. Therefore, psychological preparation is also a good way to relieve pain. No matter what method is used, it is difficult to be absolutely painless. Its application is to make the unbearable pain of uterine contraction tolerable, or just feel the contraction without pain.