THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF ANALGESIA IN LABOR

Women frequently use a mixture of analgesics to gain relief from the d istress of childbirth and antenatally require information on their eff ectiveness and side-effects. One such example would be the reported lo ng-term neonatal behavioural changes following systemic opioids such a s pethidine, The most frequently reported maternal effects of epidural or spinal analgesia are prolonged symptoms of headache, backache and neurological sequelae. Large retrospective studies of postpartum sympt omatology have focused on correlations with regional nerve blockade ra ther than on other more commonly used analgesics, Post-dural puncture headache is a recognized long-term complication of epidural nerve bloc kade. However, prospective studies have not confirmed any causal relat ionship between epidural analgesia and backache and neurological compl ications are five times more common after childbirth itself than after regional nerve blockade. Postpartum symptomatology describes signific ant morbidity in the community but its relationship to analgesia in la bour is still to be proved.