Linus Oota, Lafia
The Department of Anesthesiologist, Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH) Lafia, Nasarawa State, has introduced a painless labour procedure known as epidural labour injection.
An anesthesiologist at the hospital, Dr. Joseph Simon Adagazu, who announced the new method told our correspondent that the process is done by introducing an injection into the pelvic region to reduce the labour pains while the labour progresses. He spoke yesterday in DASH, shortly after applying the method on the first patient in the hospital, Mrs. Nathan Ekwu, who delivered successfully without any pain or stress.
Dr. Adagazu further explained that the procedure has made labour easier and will reduce mortality rate, noting that it is less painful and has also reduced the high rate of cesarean.
According to him, women who have heart respiratory diseases should not be allowed to go through labour by placing much burden on the heart. “They can benefit from this process,” he said. “It is called labour epidural anesthesia and it blocks pains that accompany labour. The woman will go through all her labour without any single pain.
“Women who have heart respiratory disease and other life-threatening illness should also not go into labour. They can benefit from this process too especially, those suffering from hypertension, asthma, sickle cell disease, among other diseases that have to do with the heart.”
The first beneficially of the process Mrs. Ekwu, appreciated Dr Adagazu for his innovation, adding that she never noticed that she was in labour, only for her to hear the cry of her baby. “I did not experience any single pain and the process was very smooth without any stress. I recommend it to all women,” she said.