- Home
- FirendlyHealthcare
- Childbirth is no longer synonymous with "unbearable pain": Getting to know pain relief during labor
Childbirth is no longer synonymous with "unbearable pain": Getting to know pain relief during labor
Must the joy of childbirth always come with pain? We offer an alternative choice to make labor pain no longer an inevitable part of childbirth.
What is "pain relief during labor"? What are the benefits?
Pain relief during labor has matured and been practiced on expectant mothers abroad since the 1990s to achieve the effect of reducing labor pain.
Pain relief during labor involves using regional anesthesia to allow mothers to experience childbirth in a relaxed manner. Some mothers even have an increased chance of vaginal delivery and shorter labor duration due to effective pain relief.
Am I suitable for pain relief during labor? How painful is childbirth? When is the best time to do it?
The vast majority of expectant mothers can meet the criteria for pain relief during labor. However, all mothers will undergo assessments by obstetricians and anesthesiologists before proceeding.
Childbirth pain may not be the top-ranked pain, but it's consistently in the top three. Some mothers describe it as follows: "Painful enough to break the delivery room chair, which was made of iron!"
In the past, pain relief during labor was usually performed after the cervix was dilated by 3 centimeters. However, recent research reports suggest that it can be performed once assessed by obstetricians and anesthesiologists.
What are the side effects of pain relief during labor? Will it affect the natural labor process?
Undergoing pain relief during labor may occasionally lead to short-term side effects like headache, itching, or shivering. In extremely rare cases (less than one in ten thousand), infection or nerve damage might occur. However, these side effects can still be minimized through early detection, diagnosis, and treatment.
The latest research indicates that pain relief during labor does not affect the progress of labor.
I heard that there might be back pain after getting pain relief during labor. Is that true?
This is a concern for some mothers and even older generations. However, the causes of back pain are numerous, including poor posture due to relaxed ligaments during pregnancy. Literature reviews have not directly proven that regional anesthesia or pain relief during labor causes back pain.
Is pain relief during labor truly painless? Is it the same as painless labor?
While painless labor might be more familiar, why is it called pain relief during labor? Pain can be quantified on a scale from 0 (no pain at all) to 10 (most painful experience). The goal of pain relief during labor is to reduce the pain score to around 3 to 4, not to eliminate sensation entirely.
During the later stages of labor (after the cervix is dilated to 6 to 7 centimeters), the pain sensation becomes stronger. After assessment by an anesthesiologist, the medication formula will be adjusted to provide the best pain relief. The term "painless" used before was not an exaggeration, but research has shown that achieving complete painlessness can lead to labor stagnation and an increased likelihood of cesarean sections. Therefore, obstetricians and anesthesiologists worldwide now agree that dosage adjustment is necessary, but complete painlessness should not be achieved. This approach can lead to a comfortable and pain-relieved labor process.