One is screaming, the other is browsing on the phone. Sometimes anesthetics are not omnipotent, it also depends on your mood.

Since the gradual popularization of labor analgesia, more and more women have asked for "painless" labor. Judging from the ratio, at least half of them will accept this comfortable medical treatment. Because of this, the work of the anesthesiology department has become busier.

At this time, someone asked, what does other people’s childbirth have to do with your Department of Anesthesiology?

What everyone doesn't know is that it matters a lot. It can be said that without the Department of Anesthesiology, all painlessness and comfort are just empty talk.

In theory, there are many ways to reduce the pain of childbirth, such as water birth, birthing balls, and music therapy. But the most effective way is to use anesthetics to directly control the pain.

Among the methods of using anesthetics to control pain, you can choose intravenous analgesics, inhaled anesthetic gases with analgesic effects, intrathecal injection of local anesthetics, and perineal injection of local anesthetics.

Scientifically and practically proven, the method of injecting local anesthetics into the spinal canal is the most accurate and effective. This is because the nerve innervation of the human trunk and limbs is distributed according to segments. As long as the corresponding pain nerves are accurately blocked, the pain relief effect can be achieved.

As mentioned earlier, it is impossible without the anesthesiology department because only the anesthesiology department can implement this technology. Spinal analgesia technology is essentially a derivative of anesthesia technology. In terms of operation, spinal analgesia and spinal anesthesia are almost exactly the same. The only difference is the concentration and dosage of the drugs used.

Since this operation requires extremely high technical skills and must be performed by experienced anesthesiologists, it naturally becomes another task of the anesthesiology department.

When thinking of anesthesia, almost everyone thinks that the pain will go away after the anesthesia is given. In fact, this is not the case. Especially for labor analgesia, the goal of analgesia is to "reduce pain" rather than "completely painless". Because of this, almost all analgesic effects are different.

At this point, some people may ask: How is this possible? If you anesthesiologists use more anesthetics and the same dose, wouldn't the effect be the same?

It is true that there is absolutely no problem technically, but labor analgesia is by no means a problem with the technology itself.

Let’s talk about a typical clinical case: two women expecting to give birth, both received labor analgesia, but one was still screaming while the other was quietly browsing her phone.

At first glance, it seems that the analgesic that is screaming is not satisfactory. In fact, this involves the problem of understanding the concept of pain itself.

Pain is an unpleasant subjective experience of the human body. In other words, seemingly objective pain is actually more of a subjective feeling. Because of this, different people will show different pain reactions to the same stimulus.

It seems that people still cannot understand what I said. Let me give you an example so that you can understand. For example, when you cut your hand while sharpening a pencil, it will hurt. If you get the same injury while playing football or in a high-intensity confrontation, you may not even notice the injury. In this case, it is a question of whether you are focused and whether your mind is relaxed. When you get injured on the football field, you don't focus on the injury at all, which is also a kind of relaxation, so it doesn't hurt.

The woman who was screaming in labor felt so much pain because she was too focused on her belly. In addition to the subjective feeling, pain itself can also cause a vicious cycle that continues to strengthen physiologically. The more pain a person feels, the more pain transmitters are released in the body. The more pain, the more hypoxia. The more hypoxia, the more muscle spasms. The more spasms, the more hypoxia. If this chain is not broken, the pain will only get worse.

At this time, someone may say: Can't you anesthesiologists give us more anesthetics?

Technically, anesthesiologists can completely control any pain. It is no exaggeration to say that even an elephant can be knocked down by anesthesiologists in a matter of minutes. However, safety comes first.

The principle of pain relief for expectant mothers is "relieve pain under the premise of safety". As for some people saying "it doesn't hurt at all", it can only be said to be a perfect ending.

For maternal analgesia, the concentration of anesthetics is generally only about 1/4 of that of surgical anesthesia. This concentration of anesthetics can theoretically eliminate most of the pain. It will not even affect the force of the mother giving birth. The reason for doing this is mainly to minimize the exposure of children to anesthetics. Although current anesthetics are theoretically safe, with the discovery of science and the progress of research, what if there is an impact? Therefore, it is better to use less.

It can be said that labor analgesia is the result of the efforts of both doctors and patients. This includes not only the anesthesiologist's analgesia technology, but also the adjustment of the mother's own mentality, the assessment of the delivery conditions, the comfort of the midwife, and even the comfort of the family members, which will affect the final analgesic effect.

It can be said that a perfect labor analgesia device is the result of everyone's efforts, and we must never bet solely on the analgesia technology itself.

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