Description

Find out about the effects of the epidural shot on you and your baby.

Transcript

Anna: Hi! My name is Anna and I am in Burbank, my question is if I decide to have an epidural during delivery how does it affect me or my child? Garth Essig: Anna that's a commonly asked question, and because one of the anesthetics that we like to recommend for patients who desire some form of anesthesia or pain relief during labor, and it's administered not into the spinal column as it might look, but we apply this near the spinal column and so it floods the nerve roots. This gives us an advantage because none of this - a very little just crosses to the baby and the mother gets very little of this systemic effect and so it's all local and the anesthesia is in the area we wanted which is below the waist, and allows the mother to participate in the labor process and gives us maximum safety both mother and baby.