Epidural analgesia is an option that a woman has (should have) when giving birth. While there are women who prefer to avoid it and give birth without any drugs, there are many others who are afraid of suffering and ask to be administered.
The epidural is not harmless, has side effects and there are other methods to alleviate labor pain, although less effective. In any case, it depends on the pain threshold of each woman and her personal decision about the use of anesthesia in childbirth.
What is truly ridiculous is that in the case of requesting it, do not administer due to "a breakdown of the computer system", as happened during Holy Week at the Prince of Asturias Hospital in Alcalá de Henares.
For a week (between March 18 and 24), no parturient who entered the hospital was given anesthesia to give birth, except in the case of deliveries with complications. The anesthetists refused to put it on because the central monitoring system was broken. This is a screen that shows the monitoring of pregnant women that allows midwives to learn about the evolution of the contractions and the beats of the fetus in each case.
Because epidural is an invasive technique, doctors argue that epidural analgesia cannot be applied without "permanent monitoring of the mother and the fetus." It is understandable the position of anesthetists, who do not want to play to administer a drug without having control of the situation. Instead, they have been given strong painkillers to minimize pain, but some women declared feeling stunned and not having been able to enjoy their birth as they would have liked.
Really, giving birth with or without anesthesia is a personal choice, but it is outrageous not to have the power to choose due to a cause as absurd as a computer breakdown.
They say the monitor has broken down several times in recent years. So why don't they fix it ?! It's amazing that this kind of thing happens. In the end, as always, the most affected are the patients.
Regarding breakdowns, an anecdote of my first birth comes to mind. I remember that in full monitoring the baby's heartbeat stopped being heard, we were scared to death believing that something could happen to the girl, but it turns out that the cable made false contact and had disconnected from the device.
Fortunately, it was just that, but the women who gave birth that week at the Prince of Asturias of Alcalá de Henares did not have the same fate.
