What is an epidural and how does it work?
Sensation and the ability to move are controlled by nerves that reach through your body. Information about pain, heat, cold, and movement travel along these nerves toward your spine. These stimuli cross the epidural space — the space which lies between the spinal cord and its protective bony spine — to the spinal cord,where they are transmitted to the brain. The brain in turn interprets these stimuli and the appropriate sensation is experienced. When anesthesia is delivered into the epidural space, these transmitted sensations are blocked. Epidural anesthesia involves the repeated delivery of a local anesthetic into the epidural space. A skilled anesthesia care provider can easily place a needle into the epidural space and bathe the nerves carrying painful stimuli from the uterus in anesthetic, thus numbing the nerves from the uterus and birth passage.
