IV pain medication

Research on intravenous and other parenteral pain medication in labor covers opioids and how they compare with other options. A review examines parenteral opioids for maternal pain management in labour, and another asks about epidural analgesia, remifentanil and nitrous oxide for pain relief during childbirth. A scoping review protocol sets out how pharmacological pain management for childbirth will be mapped.

Many of the tracked papers place these drugs in the wider field. An overview of systematic reviews of pain management for women in labour, an expert review of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic options, a general review of pain management during labor and vaginal birth, and a paper on new labor pain treatment options all discuss them alongside other methods. Narrative reviews on neuraxial analgesia and on neonatal health in relation to the type of anesthesia address how choices relate to baby outcomes.

Parents often ask how an IV medicine feels, how long it lasts, whether it reaches the baby and how it compares with an epidural. The research continues to look at these questions, and the studies differ in drugs, settings and outcomes.

An educator may want slides to describe where IV medication fits among the options and to say what each study measured. The papers listed below are the ones the Hub tracks on this topic.