There are definite times wherein pregnant women or young children have no other choice but to go under anesthesia due to medical risk — in situations like these, it is necessary and unavoidable. However, the new FDA warning is advising parents and expecting parents to talk to their doctors ahead of time, if possible, so they understand the risks.
Having anesthesia as part of your labor is a scary experience, to begin with, it can create feelings of worry, especially to the well-being of your baby, anesthesia during the surgery can be a scary process, with many concerns from parent forums and a recently FDA warning statement that states the risks of having anesthesia during pregnancy — certain limited studies have shown that babies and kids can have certain genetic abnormalities and other diseases when they are exposed to anesthesia in a long time.
This created an uprising of concerned moms and soon to be pregnant women who are going near the labor stage soon, now in this article, we present to you some basis on the dangers of anesthesia and if it is a real concern or a hoax.
What is anesthesia and what are its uses and risks?
Anesthesia is a medically induced coma, it is a state wherein the patient who will be performed surgery on is unconscious or has a temporary loss of sensory perception, awareness, and neurological pain, some anesthesia may also induce deep sleep paralysis but that depends on the severity of the drug used.
Most doctors use common techniques or forms of anesthesia that are used for consensual medical procedures that require the patient to be unconscious. This will usually result in the patient’s sleep-like state and a pain-free experience for the patient involved.
Anesthesia specifically involves the use of inhalation substances such as Isoflurane, Sevoflurane, desflurane, halothane, enflurane, isoflurane, and nitrous oxide. Other forms of anesthesia are IV medicines which include propofol, fentanyl, and ketamine. Anesthesia is a drug that is carefully handled and monitored throughout the whole duration of the procedure, just like in pregnancy wherein there can be problems during or after the surgery or labor, don’t worry about the type of anesthesia you will experience if you are at risk for having a surgery, you can always talk to your doctor or healthcare provider about these things.
How does anesthesia work?
Anesthetic drugs have a very interesting effect on how the body’s equilibrium and homeostasis work, Anaesthesia affects primarily the body processes such as cell signaling, mitosis, and DNA sequencing and synthesis of the patient, it involves these processes in cellular differentiation and organogenesis. The drug or inhaling chemical goes to the brain areas or center which signals shut down completely, anesthesia is a powerful drug that can interrupt the normal nerve function and communication and this will usually result in a dizzy feeling of the patient.
Is anesthesia safe for the baby?
As mentioned beforehand, anesthetic drugs might disrupt pregnant women’s body functions, such as DNA sequencing and synthesis, therefore, if a chemical affects a woman’s body, it will surely affect the baby inside her body.
that is the reason many doctors check the drugs that their patients take as any drugs that are placed inside the body can have a profound effect on the baby, the disruption of the pregnant woman’s body due to anesthesia could negatively affect the growth and development of the fetus especially when the anesthesia given is on a very high dose and the route or technique of administration.
Nevertheless, there has been no known drugs used for desensitizing a patient has been proven to cause toxicity or danger to the body, it is also very difficult to seek if anesthesia has profound negative health impacts on the human fetus as clearly there are a lot of ethical premises that should be considered such as animal testing, moreover, human pregnant patients can never be subjected to trials and human gestation process is entirely different to animal gestation
What is the FDA warning about anesthesia?
There has been a released sentiment about the use of anesthesia during pregnancy, based on the statement, the FDA disapproves of using anesthesia for a long term as new studies suggest that they can cause certain health risks to pregnant women, newborns and children
The FDA issued a warning on Wednesday about the repeated use of anesthesia on young children under the age of 3 and pregnant women during their third trimester of pregnancy. According to the FDA, the use of general anesthesia for a repeated or lengthy-time could influence children’s brains and even the brain of an unborn baby.
Although this new statement has been released an FDA-approved fact, for decades there have been no particular shreds of evidence that marks anesthetic drugs as toxic or harmful to humans and newborn babies. One of the main substances found in most anesthetic drugs such as Nitric oxide has been proven to be safe and there have been no conclusive studies that prove that nitric oxide is associated with miscarriage or genetic malformations.
In every normal pregnancy, there is always a 6 percent chance of having a miscarriage or any genetic abnormalities that may be a cause of something else entirely, there should be an overall prolong and conclusive experiments and studies that should be done to make a final verdict about this case.
Overall, if you’re expecting a cesarian surgery or any other form of labor surgery, a onetime use of anesthesia is safe to use, and it is authorized mainly by a licensed medical professional. The anesthetic management of pregnant patients should always be a balanced consideration of maternal and fetal physiology and pharmacology.
Final notes
Further studies should be synthesized in order to formulate a strong basis on this topic, moreover, many doctors are still arguing on the safety of anesthesia during labor or pregnancy, considering that anesthesia has a strong effect on the already changing physiology of the pregnant mother, it is necessary that anesthesia should only be administered in careful amounts, if you’re still worried, you can consult and ask your doctor to provide you some general anesthetic options during pregnancy if you need it in the future, you can also check out this link to know more about the safety studies concerning on the use of anesthetic drugs.
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