It is a really special period in the life of every woman to have a baby! And it is very important for future mothers to have appropriate knowledge regarding pregnancy, stages of labor and possible pain-relief methods. We hope our anesthesia review will help you to get acquainted with modern types of anesthesia and their role in labor pain relief. Before giving you the anesthesia review you must pay attention to the fact that every woman is free to choose either natural birth (with no use of pain-relief medications) or some kind of anesthesia. In case you choose the second variant you must consult with your obstetrician and anesthesiologist regarding the type of anesthesia to be chosen (not to bring harm to yourself and your baby). It is clear that anesthesia review might help you to have as safe and comfortable labor as possible. It is worthy admitting that after the months of waiting for baby delivery most women become anxious about the future pain they are supposed to experience during the childbirth. Fortunately, there has been a wide range of techniques and various medications to help women go through the birth process with minimal discomfort. Speaking about the anesthesia review we should pay attention to the fact that anesthesiologists are the doctors who must support the woman during the childbirth: they should see if everything's all right with the baby's breathing, heartbeat and other vital functions. At the same time, anesthesiologists are supposed to handle any problems possible to occur. By the way, every anesthesiologist has his or her own separate medical practice. According to our anesthesia review there are several groups of anesthesia. First of all, it is pain medicines which are used to help the woman decrease her labor pain. It usually means an injection in the muscle done through the special catheter into the vein. Be aware that such pain medicines often make the baby sleeping so they are recommended to be used only on the early stages of labor. Another type of anesthesia is local anesthesia. It is worthy admitting that local anesthesia is aimed at providing pain relief only to a certain small body area. Such anesthesia is usually used for control of vagina pain during the baby delivery process or for episiotomy. Remember that local anesthesia is not able to relieve any pain caused by contractions. As a matter of fact, this anesthesia is also called numbing medicine and may be used right before the baby is born (in cases when episiotomy is required). Local anesthesia means that the medicine is injected into the certain area where episiotomy is performed. It is impossible to speak about the anesthesia review and not to tell you a few words about general anesthesia. This anesthesia type puts the woman to sleep and is usually used for various emergency occasions (for example, for cesarean section or difficult vaginal birth). Regional anesthesia differs from the general one. It is known to block the feeling if the lower part of the woman's body but at the same time leaves her awake during the baby delivery.