Epidural Information

Epidurals information that is unbiased and helpful is difficult to find. Epidurals and caudals are two similar types of regional anesthesia that free a laboring woman from pain without dulling her mental faculties. They are commonly used during Cesarean section when the woman wishes to be "awake and aware," and also, in lower doses, during normal labor and delivery for complete or near-complete pain relief. Epidural information is widely available and should be discussed with your doctor before delivery.

The administration process is complex. Briefly, to insert and epidural, a local anesthetic is injected into the lumbar region of the woman's back, and then a long needle is inserted into the epidural space outside the last of the three membranes that cover the spinal cord, just inside the bone and ligament of the vertebral column. This needle makes a hole into the epidural space, and through it a soft catheter is threaded. The needle is then removed, the point of entry sealed, and the catheter is taped to the skin. At its end a small filter and stopper are attached, through which doses of anesthetic can periodically be administered. The whole process, during which the mother must hold herself as still as possible, takes about 20 minutes to complete. This process is safer for the baby and for mother than intervenous narcotics. Many times women opt to not have an epidural catheter in place for deliver and are then unable to bear the pain. The doctor then has no choice but to provide pain relief through IV narcotics that end up directly traveling into the bloodstream of the mother and unborn baby. With an epidural procedure, the medication is trapped in the spinal fluid of the mother only. Since thereis a blood-brain barrier that everyone's body naturally creates, the narcotics in the epidual spinal space remain in the spinal fluid of the mother and do not cross into her bloodstream and do not get into the baby's blood either.

Thank you for looking to Nicole Maternity Wholesale for your epidural information. For additional questions please contact your physician.