The safest form of anesthesia for Cesarean section is a spinal anesthetic. A local anaesthetic drug is injected through a needle into the small of your back to numb the nerves from the waist down to the toes for two to three hours. All spinal anesthetics contain a local anesthetic and/or a narcotic.
Risks involved with a Spinal:
- Bleeding/Infection
- Infection is greatly minimized with disinfectant.
- Spinal headache.
Other feelings you may have:
- Nausea
- Shivering
- Shortness of breath
- Chest/shoulder pain.
- Some situations will require the use of general anesthetic.
- Family members may not be present during initial administration.
- They will be allowed into the operating room for the delivery of the baby.
- There may be many other people in the operating room during the surgery.
- They are all there to help care for you and your new baby.
- A total of two people of your choosing are allowed in the operating room to be with you during the procedure.
- It usually will take only a few minutes to place the spinal needle.
- As the needle enters the spinal fluid it is common to feel pressure or funny bone sensation down one side.
- It will only take 4-5 minutes from spinal injection to when the medication takes effect and surgery may begin.
- Before surgery begins the OB will test a final time to see if the spinal medication is working properly.
- It is common to experience the feeling of pressure and movement during the procedure.
- If you feel any pain let the anesthesiologist know right away.
- A long acting pain medication will be administered that will assist pain control for 8-12 hours.
- If you have increasing pain let your nurse know and they can administer additional pain medication.
- An anesthesiologist is in the hospital at all times if you have any questions.
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