Actualización de analgesia en el trabajo de parto

Abstract

Introduction: Neuroaxial analgesia is the most widely used therapy for pain relief in labor, including spinal, epidural, and combined spinal-epidural anesthesia. In most cases, excellent benefit is obtained concerning pain, and there is little risk for the pregnant woman and the fetus besides being safe.

Objective: To describe labor analgesia and its updates using a current literature review.

Methodology: Narrative literature review in studies, meta-analysis, systematic reviews, controlled clinical trials, cohort studies, and bibliographic reviews reporting updates in labor analgesia in English and Spanish.

Results: Twenty-one articles were selected, where it was found that epidural anesthesia is considered the gold standard for pain relief in labor, in the absence of a medical contraindication, maternal request is a sufficient indication for pain relief during labor. The experience of delivery, including the intensity of pain, is different for each woman and the measures taken to relieve pain are left to the choice of the individual. It is a good practice to consider the use of various complementary therapies such as relaxation, music, yoga, and audio analgesia.

Conclusions: Epidural analgesia may be more effective in reducing pain during childbirth and increasing maternal satisfaction with pain relief compared to non-epidural methods. Further research on this topic is needed, as it is currently scarce.