Telangana: Govt hospitals to push for painless normal deliveries

Hyderabad: With the State government launching concerted efforts to promote normal deliveries, conducting painless normal deliveries without caesarean sections is very much possible in government and private maternity hospitals, senior obstetricians and gynaecologists here said. At Petlaburj maternity hospital, for the past three-years, obstetricians and anaesthetists have been enabling pregnant women suffering from heart ailments, […]

Hyderabad: With the State government launching concerted efforts to promote normal deliveries, conducting painless normal deliveries without caesarean sections is very much possible in government and private maternity hospitals, senior obstetricians and gynaecologists here said.

At Petlaburj maternity hospital, for the past three-years, obstetricians and anaesthetists have been enabling pregnant women suffering from heart ailments, to deliver without undergoing C-sections. In fact, nearly 90 pregnant women with heart ailments have delivered babies normally without the need for C-sections.

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“There is no need for pregnant women to suffer from labour pain. The intolerable labour pain can be easily subdued through modern techniques. The best and most popular option is epidural. During delivery, women on epidural will not feel the pain at all,” says Dr Kousalya Chakravarthy, Associate Professor, Obstetrics and Anaesthesia specialist, Government Maternity Hospital, Petlaburj.

Another technique at reducing the labour pain is the use of Entonox, a non-inflammable colourless gas, which contains Nitric Oxide (NO2) and Oxygen (O2). “The intensity of labour pain drops to tolerable limits among pregnant women who inhale Entonox. There could be some side effects but they can be managed under careful observation,” Dr Kousalya points out.

Apart from epidural and Entonox, there are pain-relieving medications (opioids) that are injected into the mothers blood stream intravenously (IV) or intramuscularly (IM) with an injection to decrease the labour pain.

“The disadvantage with IV medications is that they can make pregnant women drowsy and sleepy. Quite often, these opioids also enter into baby’s circulation, which could create certain complications. That’s the reason why, epidural technique is the best,” Dr Kousalya pointed out.

Professor, Anaesthesia, Ramagundam Government Hospital, Dr M Bhanu Lakshmi, who earlier had conducted several painless normal deliveries at Gandhi Hospital, said that among the existing techniques, epidurals are the best.

“Apart from heart patients, epidural technique is used for diabetics and women suffering from other chronic diseases. A dedicated team of anaesthesia who can closely monitor pregnant women will do wonders in reducing C-sections,” Dr Bhanu Lakshmi said.

The senior health professionals pointed out that pregnant women must be screened thoroughly before putting them on such painless labour techniques.