For mothers for the first time, we’re sure you’ll be experiencing mixed feelings of excitement and fear. Once you are pregnant, you’ll start thinking about eating good food and will opt in for a healthy lifestyle to give your growing baby the best possible nutrition. But as the due date edges closer, you would probably be thinking about the day of delivery, and how you will give birth to your baby. And what the options could be for your delivery; whether a vaginal birth or a c-section.
Almost every woman knows the intensity of pain a woman endures during natural birth; We hear from our friends mothers and sisters, how intense the pain will be. This creates a sense of anxiety and could cloud the feeling of happiness about the entry of a new family member. Some women endure more pains than others during delivery and C-sections have become a blessing for many women who couldn’t easily deliver their children naturally and for those with high-risk pregnancies. But many women have started choosing cesarian-section in order to avoid the pain of natural birth anyway.
And if you want to choose to have a c-section just to avoid labour pains think twice. For you can opt for a delivery called a “Painless delivery” or an “Epidural delivery”.
So what is Painless Delivery?
Simply put, painless delivery is a normal vaginal delivery without the challenge of enduring the labour pains
With Epidural anesthesia, where the anesthetist uses drugs to numb the nerves supplying to the lower part of your body. As a result the contractions will progress normally as they would in a normal vaginal delivery but would be painless.
How is it administered?
Epidural anaesthesia is administered by the anaesthetist. It is initiated after the active labour has started. Active labour involves strong uterine contractions that will push the baby down the birth canal. This causes the cervix to dilate. These strong contractions of the uterus are the cause for the pain.
The anaesthetist encourages you to take a comfortable position by lying on your side and pull your legs and head into your tummy as much as possible. This can be little challenging with your bulging tummy coming in the way. But fortunately for us, the experienced anaesthetists can put the drug in the correct area in the spinal column pretty quickly.
Subsequently the delivery is conducted as usual. You would be expected to voluntarily contract your abdomen and attempt to push the baby as before, though painlessly!
In rare situations, because of the drug there could be rapid and severe fall of bloodpressure Usually to counter that, doctors give intravenous fluids to increase the volume of blood. Mothers may experience headaches later and some difficulty with urination may be experienced transiently. Efforts to push the baby may be less due to numbness and that needs to be compensated by using a vacuum applicator occasionally.