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Show Advice on Your Health j By Morris Fishbein, Editor, Journal American Medical Association For many years doctars have been trying different techniques In an endeavor to relieve the mother of pain during childbirth. One of the chief difficulties has been the fact that drugs used to relieve pain . may delay childbirth child-birth or affect the breathing of the newborn baby. With more experience, however, how-ever, techniques have been developed devel-oped which make It possible to control 'the nature and amounts of the drugs used so as to minimize min-imize their effects. Recently physicians have reported 800 consecutive con-secutive cases of babies born to mothers who were being relieved of pain by the use of various drugs. They found that the technique, when properly used, did not in- crease the number of deaths of babies, nor did they Injure the child's -health. The chief problem under such circumstances is the difficulty which the newborn baby has In breathing properly. If the child ; does not obtain sufficient oxygen, there may be serious changes in ' the brain tissues. The study of 5000 consecutive chlldbirths in one great hospital Indicated that children who have difficulty in breathing at birth are often pre- mature. In other instances, the , damage which occurs due to a difficult childbirth may interfere f with breathing. , Excessive amounts of seda- I tive drugs or anesthetics will also 1 provide difficulties for the child. 1 However, the question which the doctor must decide for the patient pa-tient is whether or not the benefits ben-efits of relief of pain, both of . the mother and the baby, are not I more Important than any harm that might ensue. . It is the opinion of Dr. Joseph B. DeLee that physicians should ' not stop relieving pain of child- j birth, but that great care must be used in selecting the proper drugs and their manner of ad- ; ministration. If the drugs greatly prolong the . time of childbirth, the harm done j by such prolongation may be , greater than if Justified by relieving reliev-ing pain over a brief period. - Fortunately, Intel tigatlons , made in pharmacology laboratories laborato-ries throughout the nation have yielded new drugs as well as new 1 information about the uses of old ' drugs. This Information, properly prop-erly applied, means more painless pain-less childbirth and less danger to the child. |