8. Childbirth Medications and Interventions

Use this outline to guide your study and reading. You should know the concepts outlined.  Tip: Write down or type up your understanding of everything outlined for your own records.

Objectives:

  • Explain options for labor pain management
  • Understand the benefits and risks of labor interventions
  • Analyze the most common reasons for cesarean births

Study

Book – Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn

  • Chapter 13, “Medications for Pain Relief during Labor”, p 256
  • Chapter 14, “When Childbirth Becomes Complicated”, p 272
  • Chapter 15, “All About Cesarean Birth”, p 298

A. Labor Interventions

  1. IV fluids
  2. Heparin lock
  3. Monitoring fetal heart rate
  4. Amniotomy/AROM
  5. Episiotomy
  6. Vacuum
  7. Forceps

B. Induction

  1. Common reasons
  2. Elective induction
  3. Non-medical ways to induce
  4. Medical methods of induction

C. Medications

  1. Systemic medications
  2. Narcotics
  3. Perineal block
  4. Epidural
  5. Spinal block
  6. Combined spinal-epidural
  7. Patient controlled epidural analgesia
  8. Light epidural

D. Cesarean Birth

Resources: go to International Cesarean Awareness Network 

  1. Common reasons for cesareans
  2. Benefits of cesareans
  3. Risks of cesareans
  4. Cesarean procedure
  5. Recovery from cesarean
  6. Vaginal birth after cesarean

Complete Module Assignment


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