Pharmacological labour pain interventions: South African midwives' perspective

BMC Nurs. 2024 Mar 14;23(1):176. doi: 10.1186/s12912-024-01844-w.ABSTRACTWomen of childbearing age feel great about giving birth, but the pain could be excruciating depending on their pain tolerances. Midwives requires obstetrical knowledge and skills such as pain management during labour and safety. We explored midwives' perspectives on the utilisation of pharmacological pain alleviation interventions during labour in selected hospitals in Matjhabeng Municipality, Free State province, South Africa. A qualitative study was undertaken, involving a sample of ten midwives, using a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Tesch's open coding data analysis method was applied to analyse the data. The midwives were restricted to use Pethidine and Phenergan prescribed by doctors for labour pain relief, which disrupted labour pain management and obliged them either to wait for a physician or follow telephone instructions. According to the midwives, women taking Pethidine and Phenergan encountered adverse effects and discomfort. Midwives identified high workload, inadequate personnel, lack of skill and knowledge, lack of medication availability, and lack of infrastructure as the primary challenges of administering pharmacological methods to women in labour. The lack of standing orders, which delays the administration of medications pending a physician's prescription, constituted an additional difficulty. In the instance that Pethidin...
Source: Pain Physician - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Source Type: research