Painless Normal Delivery / Obstetrics

We understand that all the pregnant ladies would certainly be experiencing mixed feelings of excitement and fear more so when they reach near term .

At Aarya Women's Hospital we are committed to provide you with genuine advice regarding decision making of how to give birth to the baby. The option being either vaginal birth or Cesarean section.

As we all know, for normal vaginal birth one must undergo labor pain.

Labor pain is described as the most severe pain experienced ever by most women where the majority of patients complained their pain as severe or extremely severe. This stressful condition leads to negative impacts on maternal and fetal physiology.

If you are one among those women, who plan to have a c-section only because of the fear of labor pains or if you have a question “how to get normal delivery without pain?”; you have another option to bring your baby into this world without pain, known as “Painless delivery” or “Epidural delivery”.

What is Painless normal delivery?

It is natural childbirth without experiencing any pain. In short normal delivery without pain is considered as Painless normal delivery. The most effective method to achieve pain relief during labor is Epidural Anesthesia.

How does Epidural anesthesia work?

Epidural analgesia is a central nerve blockade technique which involves the injection of a local anaesthetic into the lower region of the spine, thus blocking the painful impulses that are generated from the nerves of the contracting uterus during labour.

It is most commonly used for intrapartum pain management with approximately 20% of women in the United Kingdom [1] and 60% of women in the United States [2] utilising this technique as a form of pain relief.

A very small gauge epidural catheter is placed through which periodic medication is given to reduce the pain.

Advantages of epidural anesthesia

Helps the mother to give vaginal birth of baby without pain
Mom to be would be wide awake and can feel the whole process of childbirth without pain.
Uterine contractions will be present but not the pain hence the patient can do bearing down as required.
It helps the baby descend easily by relaxing the pelvic and vaginal muscles
Keeps the blood pressure and heartbeat under control
It prevents exhaustion and irritation felt by most women during childbirth and hence prevent postpartum complications
It is easy to perform a C section in case needed in an emergency.

Side effects of epidural anesthesia

Itching
Nausea ,vomiting
Loss of bladder control
Low blood pressure
Backache
Very rarely severe headache

When should you take the epidural anesthesia?

When a pregnant lady is in the active stage of labor i.e cervical dilatation 3cm or more. One should not wait to reach upto maximum pain point before saying yes for epidural analgesia

How safe is it to take epidural anesthesia?

Epidural analgesia when used under guidance of experienced anesthetists is safe for both fetus and mother and it does not have any negative impact on the labor process.

Myths & Facts

"Chances of ending up in C- Section are high” FALSE

After epidural injection chances of delivering the baby by vacuum or forcep may increase slightly . But the claim that it increases chances of cesarean section are totally false.

Chances of backache post epidural anesthesia are high” FALSE
Painless delivery harms the baby FALSE
In painless delivery i won't be able to push the baby” FALSE

After epidural anesthesia there will be numbness in both legs of the patient. However you would be able to push the baby even after weakness of the lower body.