Aim of Epidural Labor Analgesia
| What is an ideal epidural anesthesia? |
| Anesthesiologists would aim to provide good pain relief without impeding your ability to move your legs or push the baby out during childbirth. In other words, you will be pain free but you will be able to move your legs during epidural analgesia. A relatively new development is 'walking epidural' (see section on "Walking epidural"), which allows the patient to stand up and walk during labor. Although you may feel strong enough to stand up and move around, some hospital policies may not allow you to walk once your epidural is in place. Depending upon one's requirements for local anesthetic medications via epidural, occasionally one can have transient weakness of legs hampering your ability to move your legs which should resolve over time. The anesthesiologist, with the assistance of your labor and delivery nurse, would monitor requirements of local anesthetic medications via epidural route. |
