Can I take additional pain medication while having spinal anesthesia or an epidural?

Can I take additional pain medication while having spinal anesthesia or an epidural?

Samuel Seelig (Anesthesiologist, Los Angeles, California) gives expert video advice on: What are the risks of an epidural?; Can I take additional pain medication while having spinal anesthesia or an epidural?; Does general anesthesia affect breastfeeding? and more...

You can have additional pain medication if you have a spinal or an epidural. If you are the laboring mother, keep in mind that any medications given to you that have effects of pain relief, or effects of somnolence:sleepiness, will also cross the placenta and get to the baby. So, the advantages of the regional anesthetic techniques:epidural and spinal, is that none of these agents cross the placenta and have an impact on the baby. When you have intraveneous narcotics, or tranquilizers during labor, some of that will cross the placenta, and the baby will also be somewhat sleepy. If these medications are given just prior to delivery, sometimes the baby will have to be ventilated with a mask if the baby is particularly sleepy from these medications.