Active clinical trials for "Labor Pain"

Background: Episiotomy is performed in up to 30% of vaginal deliveries. Previously, pain treatment following episiotomy has relied on non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) as analgesics, whose use during breastfeeding remains controversial due of their transfer to the child through lactation. The aim of the study is to determine the effect of acupuncture on postpartal perineal pain following episiotomy. Methods: The study is designed as a prospective interventional randomized parallel single-center study to evaluate the effects of auricular acupuncture on pain relief after episiotomy. The population will encompass 60 patients that have had mediolateral episiotomy performed during vaginal delivery, with 29 receiving acupuncture therapy and 31 not receiving acupuncture therapy for pain relief. NSAID analgesic therapy will be made available per request.

Until recently, at Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH), epidural analgesia for labor pain was delivered with a pump that could only provide continuous infusion of the freezing medication in combination of pushes of medication activated by the patient, a technique called patient controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA). In the last decade or so, the literature has suggested that this continuous infusion of medication is not as effective as previously thought, and suggested that instead of continuous infusion we should use intermittent programmed pushes. The investigators now have devices that are able to do that. Programmed intermittent epidural bolus (PIEB) is a new technological advance based on the concept that boluses of freezing medication in the epidural space are superior to continuous epidural infusion (CEI). Recently the epidural pumps at MSH were reprogrammed to deliver bolus of medication at regular intervals (PIEB), in addition to what the patient can deliver herself (PCEA). Studies have shown that delivering analgesia in this manner prolong the duration of analgesia, reduce motor block, lower the incidence of breakthrough pain, improve maternal satisfaction and decrease local anesthetic consumption. The investigators have recently concluded a study at MSH using PIEB where excellent results were observed. However, in that study, some patients exhibited higher than necessary sensory blocks. The investigators believe that the technique can be optimized by using the same interval of the previous study with smaller volumes of the intermittent boluses. Optimizing the technique, may allow the investigators to be able to reduce even further the amount of medication used by each patient. The hypothesis of this study is that there is an optimal volume of the PIEB bolus at a fixed interval of 40 minutes of 0.0625% bupivacaine plus fentanyl 2mcg/ml that will provide 90% of women the necessary drug requirements during first stage of labor (EV90), thus avoiding breakthrough pain and need for PCEA or physician intervention. We hypothesize that this effective volume will be between 7 and 12 mL (6.6 mg/hr to 11.3 mg/hr of bupivacaine).

Epidural anesthesia (EP) is widely used for labor analgesia. Time to onset of adequate pain relief of EP technique for labor analgesia may be 15 to 20 minutes.More rapid injection is often passible through the needle compared to catheter and could enhance the spread of medication within the epidural space.There is lack of research assessing the onset of labor analgesia with a large priming dose of local anesthetic through the epidural needle compared with the epidural catheter.

The study has two groups. one of them is experimental group that is given massage with clove oil. The other one is control group that is given standard midwifery care. Each group consists of 30 women. We will evaluate their labor pain scores by using Visual Analogue Scale before and after massage application.

The purpose of this small randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to compare the impact of a brief (16 hour) 3rd trimester mindfulness-based childbirth education program, "Mind in Labor (MIL): Working with Pain in Childbirth," with a standard care/"treatment as usual" (TAU) active control condition of standard hospital- and community-based childbirth education. The MIL group is expected to demonstrate a reduction in fear of labor (less pain catastrophizing and greater childbirth self-efficacy), less perceived pain in labor, less use of pain medication in labor, greater birth satisfaction, and better prenatal and postpartum psychological adjustment compared to the TAU group.

Lumbar epidural analgesia is commonly used for labor pain relief due to its effectiveness and safety. Despite its very high success rate, the epidural technique remains a rather blind technique and failures continue to occur. The correct placement of an epidural catheter, however, remains a clinical problem, since there is no imaging technique that could be used at the bedside to determine the exact positioning of the catheter. The technique of a trans-catheter electric stimulation test (TCEST) has been successfully used to detect the proper epidural catheter location for pediatric, post-operative and laboring obstetric patients. The response to the TCEST with the uniport (single hole) epidural catheters has been well described. There is a growing body of evidence that multiport epidural catheters provide an advantage to uniport catheters, since additional ports likely allow for an enhanced distribution of the local anesthetic solution. This was shown to result in a lower incidence of inadequate analgesia, including unilateral sensory blockade and missed sensory segments. The characteristics of the TCEST response using a multiport catheter remain to be determined. The aim of this study is to compare the response patterns to the TCEST using a single port versus multiport wire reinforced epidural catheters. The hypothesis of this study is that the incidence of a bilateral response to the TCEST will be higher in the multiport catheter as compared to the uniport catheter.

Ultrasound scanning of the back has been shown to increase success when used to guide epidural catheter insertion. However, this technique is not applied widely in clinical practice. Stronger evidence is required to prove that it will improve the clinical experience of labour epidurals. The study hypothesis is that anesthesiologists (both residents and fellows), will have an increased rate of success and ease of insertion of labour epidural catheters, and that there will be increased patient satisfaction, if ultrasound scanning of the lumbar spine is done prior to the procedure.

Painless labor is an essential part in woman's health care. Labor analgesia in the active phrase is in popular use currently. However, parturients are still haunted by the labor delivery pain in the latent phrase up to 7-8 hours, especially for the nulliparas. Therefore, we hypothesized that labor analgesia in the latent phrase of the first delivery stage would provide superior health care for laboring women. In addition, such analgesia technique would not prolong the time of uterine dilation and labor delivering.

The purpose of this study in nulliparous women undergoing induction of labor is to determine whether initiation of neuraxial analgesia compared to systemic opioid analgesia early in labor (< 4 cm cervical dilation)affects the cesarean delivery rate.

During labor there is an increased production of inflammatory mediators called cytokines. Higher concentration of certain cytokines has been linked to adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes. Epidural analgesia is commonly performed after the parturient feels labor pain. We hypothesis that preemptive epidural analgesia (initiated before labor pain begins)can influence the production of cytokines.