Our Anesthesia department is staffed by eight Certified Registered Nurse
Anesthetists (CRNAs). CRNAs are advanced practice nurses with specialized
graduate-level education in anesthesiology. The nurse anesthetist stays
with you for the entire procedure and constantly monitors every important
function of your body to individually modifying your anesthetic and ensure
your optimal safety and comfort.
Anesthesia Types
The anesthesia chosen for you is based on factors such as physical condition,
the nature of the surgery and your reactions to medications.
The basic types of anesthesia include:
General anesthesia produces a loss of sensation throughout the entire body.
Regional anesthesia produces a loss of sensation to a specific region of the body.
Local anesthesia produces a loss of sensation to a small, specific area of the body.
Anesthesia Options for Childbirth
The ideal anesthetic during labor and delivery should provide enough pain
relief to allow you to deliver your baby with minimal pain and anxiety,
leaving you free to fully participate in the experience and to push when
it is time to do so.
Commonly used regional obstetrical anesthetics include:
Epidural: With an epidural, anesthesia is delivered through a tiny tube called a
catheter placed in the small of the back, just outside the spinal canal.
An advantage of the epidural is that it allows most women to fully participate
in the birth experience while relieving most, if not all, of the pains of labor.
Spinal (intrathecal): This method is similar to an epidural, but because the drugs are administered
with a needle into the spinal canal, the effects are felt much faster.
Combined spinal-epidural (CSE): The combined spinal-epidural method uses the advantages of both the spinal
intrathecal and the epidural approach. The fast onset of pain relief from
the spinal approach, together with the benefit of the continuous infusion
of the epidural, provides a quick and lasting method of easing the pain
associated with labor and delivery. With this method, less pain medication
will be used while providing a superior form of pain management.
Patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA): In conjunction with the CSE or epidural methods, patient controlled epidural
analgesia allows the patient to have greater control over their own pain
management. After the epidural catheter is placed, the patient is given
a hand-held control button which, when pressed, will administer pain medication
as prescribed and set by the anesthetist. With this method, the patient
may control how much or little pain medication they receive during their labor.
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