Where the Epidural Is Injected? - Health Channel

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Where the Epidural Is Injected? |

The epidural is injected in the “Epidural space” into the spine, explains Dr. Alberto Sirven, Medical Director of the West Kendall OB/GYN Program and Women and Infant Credentials Committee Chairman with West Kendall Baptist Hospital, with a digital imaging.

The specialist says epidural does not change natural birth. He considers the epidural is for a majority of patients and gives them the ability to control the pain.

Transcript

We have a graphic of where the epidural is inserted, so let’s take that and thank you Lauren for correcting me, that’s my producer. Dr. show us where it’s injected and how it works. >Well the epidural goes right, right… if you look at that there’s three arrows there. First the spinal cord, the sub Illinois space and the epidural space. Okay. And the last one you see the needle going right at the epidural space, okay. So the idea is that it goes right where it’s located between l3 and l4, lumbar spine three and lumbar spine four, and the needle goes in that space which is called the epidural space. If you go a little too far you get a soft air in those space we’re definitely in the wrong place and those give you severe headache because you bleed and all that. But the area is that white area between the red and the blue that is so nicely there indicated there. Of course in the real people we don’t have those colors I don’t have that space, so you have to have the ability to place the needle right in that space. >Do you have a lot of moms that say: “no, no, no, I don’t want one” and then they decide: “give it to me” >Yes — Now! — I get a lot of patients that come in and tell me that somehow patients feel that if they’re getting epidural they’re not getting a natural delivery, I don’t know where that came from but it’s somehow out there and I think that is so wrong because the epidural does not change the way you delivery whatsoever in the sense that natural birth is when you the baby comes out through the birth canal and the other one is a c-section. So having an epidural does not change your natural birth and… So we get a lot of patients that come in and said: “I just won all natural” and I want to make… I’m not saying that an epidural is for everyone, there’s others instance and other pain management I think we’re going to discuss that a little further — we are — but I think the epidural is ideal for the majority of patients and gives them that ability to really control the pain relax enjoy the labor and don’t smear the makeup.

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