Initiation and maintenance of neuraxial labour analgesia: A narrative review

Abstract

Labour analgesia is a crucial aspect of obstetric anaesthesia, aiming to alleviate pain during childbirth while ensuring maternal and foetal safety. Over the past decade, advancements in labour analgesia techniques have evolved, impacting initiation, maintenance, and outcomes. We emphasize the longstanding importance of epidural analgesia while recognizing the growing significance of combined spinal-epidural and dural puncture epidural techniques for labour initiation. Analgesia maintenance is optimally achieved with an epidural bolus regimen, either manual boluses, programmed intermittent boluses or patient-controlled epidural analgesia. Utilizing high-volume, low-dose combinations of local anaesthetics with lipophilic opioids demonstrates synergistic effects, facilitating dose reduction and minimising adverse effects. Adjuvants can play a role in specific clinical contexts. The increasing significance of ultrasound guidance for procedural precision is highlighted. The intricate nature of labour pain management underscores the importance of both patient and clinician involvement in decision-making processes. Future advancements in this field have the potential to enhance the well-being of women as well as their newborns.