Does the painless delivery injection have any side effects? How long can the painless delivery injection last?

Painless childbirth injections are anesthesia given to mothers who cannot bear the pain during childbirth to help them push. So are there any side effects of painless childbirth injections? How long can painless childbirth injections last?

Will the painless delivery injection cause back pain after childbirth?

I had a "painless injection" (epidural anesthesia for childbirth) during childbirth, and I had back pain after childbirth. Was it really the "painless injection" that caused the problem? Is there really a hidden harm of back pain after childbirth behind painless childbirth?

Orthopedic expert: Lying down for too long during confinement may cause back pain

Yang Junlin, chief physician of the Department of Orthopedics at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, said that indeed many women came to the outpatient clinic to complain of back pain after childbirth, and some suspected that the back pain was caused by epidural anesthesia.

"If there is pain at a certain point in the waist, it is possible that the interspinal ligament was damaged during the lumbar puncture under anesthesia." Yang Junlin explained, but this kind of injury is not terrible, and it can usually be recovered through physical therapy and methods of exercising the waist strength such as swimming and walking.

Yang Junlin believes that the pain in the waist after childbirth has nothing to do with anesthesia puncture. "When pregnant, women have big bellies and their lumbar spine is already strained. If they don't exercise after childbirth, it will lead to chronic lumbar strain."

In China, women have to stay in bed for a month after giving birth, and they often lie still. "Due to hormones, the ligaments of the mother are loose and the joints are unstable. If you lie down for a long time, the ligaments will be in a loose state for a long time. If you get up and move around suddenly, it is easy to damage the waist ligaments." Therefore, you should get out of bed and exercise as soon as possible after giving birth, and pay attention to the intensity of exercise from an early age. It is recommended that mothers go out of bed one day after a normal birth, and go out to do appropriate exercise one week after a caesarean section.

Of course, excessive exercise or inappropriate exercise after childbirth can also cause interspinous ligament injury. Yang Junlin said that this kind of waist pain can be relieved through physical therapy and waist exercise.

Obstetric expert: Calcium deficiency can also cause low back pain

Cai Jian, deputy chief physician of obstetrics who has worked for many years, basically agrees with the orthopedic doctors. Cai Jian believes that the force on the spine changes during pregnancy, which makes it easy to have low back pain. At the same time, affected by various hormones, the ligaments relax, and pregnant women often lack calcium, which can also cause low back pain.

Cai Jian believes that because the puncture for anesthesia must pass through the corresponding interspinal space and the yellow ligament. As long as there is no repeated puncture during the anesthesia of the waist, it will generally not cause back pain. In fact, epidural anesthesia is used in many surgeries, not just in obstetrics. This method of anesthesia is a very common and commonly used method. According to the feedback from the mothers who came back for a follow-up examination 42 days after delivery, not many reported back pain. The anesthetic drugs themselves will not cause back pain.

What are the side effects of taking an epidural?

Painless childbirth will not have any adverse effects on the fetus, but it does involve certain risks for the mother. Common complications of painless childbirth include low blood pressure and mild headaches, but serious life-threatening complications are relatively rare. Common adverse reactions mainly affect the labor process and placental blood supply. Therefore, the entire delivery process requires the joint monitoring of the mother by an obstetrician and gynecologist and anesthesiologist.

Painless childbirth does cause temporary discomfort such as shivering, low blood pressure, vomiting, etc., but these discomforts are not serious and disappear naturally in a short time. They will not cause much impact on the mother's body and have no adverse consequences. Headaches, backaches, infections, cramps, drug allergies or incomplete anesthesia and pain relief are less common.

In actual childbirth, epidural anesthesia is generally used for painless childbirth. A very small number of people may experience back pain, headache, or abnormal sensation in the lower limbs, but the incidence is very low. These discomforts will not be serious and will disappear naturally in a short time without causing adverse effects on the body. Theoretically, there is a possibility of more serious complications, such as hypotension, but the probability of occurrence is very low, and the doctor will definitely take effective measures to prevent them when the expectant mother chooses painless childbirth.

How long does the painless delivery injection last?

Painless childbirth is the use of non-drug analgesia or drug analgesia to reduce the pain and fear of the mother during natural childbirth. At present, the most effective pain relief method is intrathecal labor analgesia, in which the anesthesiologist punctures the lumbar intervertebral space and injects a small amount of local anesthetic or opioid into the subarachnoid space. The mother can control the electronic analgesia pump to inject the drug into the body through a thin catheter to relieve pain. It is only given once during delivery, and subarachnoid anesthesia is performed when the cervix is ​​more than 3 cm dilated. Therefore, painless childbirth will not be anesthetized before the cervix is ​​3 cm dilated, that is, the anesthetic is not given as soon as the stomach hurts. The anesthetic lasts for a relatively long time, and there will be no need for re-anesthesia. At most, the anesthetic dose will be increased.

Before giving birth, pregnant women need to undergo some physical examinations, such as routine prenatal examinations, B-ultrasound examinations, etc. If the doctor assesses that the pregnant woman's body is suitable for painless delivery, the pregnant woman can choose to do it. During the painless delivery process, when the pregnant woman feels pain and cannot push, the anesthesiologist will give her medicine to relieve the pain. After the medicine is used, the pregnant woman will feel pain again, and the anesthesiologist will give her medicine again, and this will be repeated until the pregnant woman's delivery is over.

The dosage of painless delivery injection is controlled by the mother according to the degree of pain. It is only an auxiliary method for natural delivery and will not bring any additional impact on the child.

The editor of No. 5 website said that the painless delivery injection is an anesthetic injected during childbirth to help mothers relieve pain. However, some people say that it has no effect after the injection and it still hurts. This should be determined by each person's physical constitution. In order to relieve their own tension, the painless delivery injection may not work as well as expected, but it can give mothers psychological comfort and relax. In the end, whether to take the injection depends on your personal opinion.