Use of methadone-scopolamine in obstetric analgesia.

The past decade has witnessed two major trends in pain relief for labor and delivery: "natural childbirth" techniques and conduction (nerve block) anesthesia. The improvement wrought generally in the practice of obstetric analgesia as a result of the attention directed toward each of these popular movements has been outstanding, but neither has provided a completely adequate solution to the age old problem of woman's "poena magna." Frank appraisal of natural childbirth training reveals that it accomplishes no measurable diminution in the actual intensity of labor pains,1nor is it the "drugless method" glorified in lay publications. In a review of 1,000 consecutive cases by the Yale group,2no less than 73.3% of nulliparas experiencing spontaneous deliveries required "not over125 mg. of Demerol, or one dose of another agent." In less than 20% of even these uncomplicated labors was no analgesic used. Saddle block spinal anesthesia, most widely