Abstract
The ideal medication for analgesia during labor is still wanting. This fact is well substantiated when one critically analyzes and enumerates the great number of methods and combinations of drugs used in the modern obstetrical departments of today. Every obstetrician still seeks that analgesic or combination of agents which will produce sedation with adequate analgesia for the mother, and on the other hand, minimal depression of the Infant respiratory incentive. | The use of pharmacological agents in the relief of pain of labor has in recent years been challenged. Read has stated "Childbirth in the absence of maternal and fetal physical abnormalities is a normal physiological process which in common with other physiological phenomena is normally free from pain." Civilization has produced conditions which engender anxiety and fear concerning labor. These emotions result in muscular tension, particularly of the cervix and perineum, so that progress of labor is impeded. This causes pain. By proper instruction during pregnancy, and encouragement and direction during parturition, fear and anxiety can be allayed to such an extent that relaxation of the cervix and perineum make possible painless labor. However, we all agree that relaxation during labor is desirable, but all parturients are not able try psychologic methods to accomplish it in a degree sufficient to free them from mental and physical suffering. It can better be achieved by the judicious use of pharmacologic agents in these patients.