ABSTRACT
A study was carried out to discover the action of epidural anesthesia on pain, on the evolution of dilation and expulsion intervals, on the number of surgically assisted births, and on perinatal morbidity. Some of the most significant results indicated that with good techniques, pain disappears in all cases; that the dilating period is significantly shortened with epidural anesthesia, although there is an increase in instrumental-assisted childbirths. Even though epidural anesthesia is, as of this writing, the best method available, the ideal pain reduction method has yet to be discovered. Part of this study was presented before the National Congress of Midwives and received the "Nuk" Prize.
Subject(s)
Anesthesia, Epidural/methods , Obstetric Labor Complications/drug therapy , Pain/drug therapy , Pregnancy Outcome , Anesthesia, Epidural/adverse effects , Female , Humans , Pregnancy , PrognosisABSTRACT
In order to promote maternal lactation it is necessary to know what problems prevent it. With this in mind, a survey of 202 mothers who had children between the first of October and the end of November in 1992 was conducted. 91.5% of these mothers began normal lactation, yet 30.7% were incapable of giving milk after one month. A high frequency of lactating failure correlated with women from disadvantaged income groups. Factors that influenced the duration and difficulty of breast feeding were: lactating problems with the previous child, family opinions, rigid feeding schedules, excessive maternal preoccupation, working out of the home. Once the problems were recognized, a second objective of this study was to design a plan that would create positive attitudes toward maintaining natural lactation. After putting this plan to work, a three month study showed that 70.2% of the mothers in a experimental group continued to breast feed, whereas only 39.5% of the control group did. After four months 55% of the variable group was still nursing their children, while the control group fell to 30.2%.
