General Analgesia — Anesthesia

Abstract

Parturients in whom psychologic analgesia or systemic analgesia or regional analgesia cannot be used can be managed with general analgesia — anesthesia. During the early part of the first stage of labor, they are managed with sedatives and narcotics in the manner described in Chapter 4. When these drugs no longer are effective, inhalation analgesia is initiated. In some patients, analgesia is adequate for the actual delivery but if it is not, then general anesthesia is used. This can be achieved either by increasing the concentration of the inhalation anesthetic sufficiently to produce unconsciousness and light “surgical” levels of anesthesia or by using balanced anesthesia. Because there is a marked difference between the effects of analgesia and those of anesthesia on the mother, fetus, and forces of labor, they need to be considered separately.