What are the risks of using medications for pain relief during labor?
Because narcotics and sedatives affect all of a mother’s body, both the mother and the baby may have side effects from these medications. The mother may feel drowsy or dizzy. She may have trouble concentrating and it may be harder for her to push during delivery. More serious possible side effects are a slowing of the mother’s breathing or heart rate or a slowing of the baby’s reflexes and breathing at birth. To reduce such complications, narcotics and sedatives are given in small doses and are usually not used when the baby is about to be delivered. The medications used in most methods of regional anesthesia are less likely to pass to the baby and affect the baby because the medication does not enter the mother’s bloodstream. However, regional anesthesia can make it more difficult for the mother to push. In this case we may have to allow the anesthetic to wear off somewhat, or use forceps or vacuum extraction to guide the baby out of the birth canal. An epidural or spinal block can ca
