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Labour Pain
Labour is a very exciting experience. However, it is also painful and exhausting. Pain is a subjective experience involving a complex interaction of physiological, psychosocial, cultural and environmental influences. The pain feels much worse if you are tense. Continuous support of the husband in the labour room will reduce anxiety, fear and the pain. Self-help techniques such as relaxation and breathing may help. If you breathe steadily and evenly during contractions and relax between them, it will reduce the pain.
There are several ways to reduce labour pain:
- Injection: In Singapore, opium related pain-killer (pethidine or morphine) given by injecting the drug in the thigh is the common method. However, it may make you drowsy and the pain relief is less satisfactory compared with epidural analgesia. Another disadvantage is that it crosses the placenta and makes the baby drowsy, less alert, and may cause difficulty in breathing and delay in feeding.
- Inhalation: Nitrous oxide mixed with oxygen (Entonox) is also widely used in Singapore. The mixture is breathe through a mask every time you have a contraction. It takes 50 seconds after inhalation to have the effect. Side effects include drowsiness, nausea, vomiting and poor recall of labour. It offers only moderate pain relief.
- Epidural block: Injection of local anesthetic through a fine tube into a space outside the spinal column at the lower back. This will numb the nerve around the lower half of the body and is very effective in relieving pain. However, side effects include a fall in blood pressure, backaches and headaches. After delivery, you may lose some sensation in your legs and control of urination.
- Transcutanous Electrical Nerve stimulation (TENS): This is a small battery-powered stimulator that produces low-intensity electrical signals through electrodes that stick to the lower back. It produces a tingling sensation that reduces pain. Some experts believe TENS works by blocking pain signals in the spinal cord, or by delivering electrical impulses to underlying nerve fibers that lessen the experience of pain. Others suspect that the electrical stimulation triggers the release of natural painkillers in the body. It offers moderate pain relief.
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