[Thoughts about the efforts for the elimination of labour pain and the application of epidural analgesia in obstetrics].
The author takes its stand in a dispute over epidural analgesia [EDA] widely used in practical obstetrics, a disagreement, which has divided obstetricians in the past few decades. The author believes that the psychosomatic preparation of mothers is more important and agrees that it is absolutely necessary to relief hard-to-stand labour pains lived by some as suffering, however he disagrees with the application of EDA as full analgesia in labour. He argues that one should not interfere in biological processes, developed by nature in the course of a very long evolution of human life, using particularly far-reaching and invasive methods. He points out that labour pains are important elements of a defence mechanism warning the body of imminent dangers and that the experience of pain at labour is most likely to initiate psychological reflexes that certainly contribute to the development of a healthy motherly pride and motherly identity and of a closer, long-term emotional attachment between mother and baby. Besides, EDA does not at all fit in the practice of natural labour recently reviving worldwide. At the same time, the author acknowledges that a controlled use of EDA can be justified in cases when the mother insists on having it, or, when it is recommended by her doctor, providing, however that the mother is correctly informed in either case. The author mentions the medical and legal difficulties involved in the application of EDA and underlines the necessity of correct information including its risks and negative effects also raised in his paper.
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Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén Megyei Kórház es Egyetemi Oktató Kórház, Szüleszeti és Nogyógyászati Osztály, Miskolc. berko.szulesz@bazmkorhaz.hu
D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural / Q000379:methods; D000773:Anesthesia, Obstetrical / Q000379:methods; D000075202:Contraindications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D048949:Labor Pain / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011247:Pregnancy