[citation needed] Obstetric anesthesiologists typically serve as consultants to ob-gyn physicians and provide pain management for both complicated and uncomplicated pregnancies.
[4] Maternal-specific procedures include cerclage, external cephalic version (ECV), postpartum bilateral tubal ligation (BTL), and dilation and evacuation (D and E).
[4] The administration of general anesthesia in operative procedures was publicly demonstrated by William Thomas Green Morton (1819–1868) in Boston, October 1846 as the first successful practice of its kind.
Pioneers of obstetric anesthesia extended these findings to cases of parturition or childbirth, notably including James Young Simpson of Scotland (1811–1870), John Snow of London (1813–1858) and Walter Channing of the United States (1786–1876).
[7][8] Following that initial administration documented in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal by N.C Keep, Walter Channing described several obstetric cases in which he successfully employed sulfuric ether in the United States.
Biblical literalism led many to interpret labor pains as punishment for sin and deemed obstetric anesthesia impious with respect to the primeval curse.
In this sentiment he is referring to many of the medical practitioners who mitigate minor pains but avoid obstetric anesthetics for fear of opposition or religious persecution.
[15] Critic Charles Meigs exemplified this belief of the physiological value in parturition pain, which the greater public supported throughout the mid 19th century.
The natural benefits of such labor pains which initially inhibited the practice of obstetrical analgesia, originated from another religious consideration of perfection.
In support of this claim, M. Roussel advocated that the refinement of society through technical operations (i.e. anesthesia) causes more harm then good to the natural process of childbirth.
The inhalation of anesthetic agents do not affect the act of labor or the mechanism by which uterine contractions occur, but rather renders the woman insensible to the high degree of pain.
[19] With this finding, along with the statistical records of safely executed anesthetic administrations, the medical opposition to obstetric analgesia for pain annulment was suppressed.
Following an era of natural philosophy, physicians evoked the ability of wild animals and ‘savaged individuals’ to deliver offspring in regions where the practice of child rearing had never been reduced to an art form.
The likening of any obstetrical practice to mere pretend science, including the delivery of anesthetic agents, further prolonged the advancement of this field considerably throughout the 19th century.
The news of this ‘anti-obstetric’ practice failed to spread to the civilized community, allowing the means of obstetric interference through general and anesthetic intervention to persist.
However under certain circumstances it is important to attenuate the hypertensive responses to induction and incision and ultra-short acting opioids (remifentanil and alfentanil) appear to be efficacious and safe.
[29] After receiving a medical degree, students must complete a four-year residency training at an approved anesthesiology program[30] and pass certification exams to become a board-certified, general anesthesiologist.
[30] Anesthesiologists use safe blood transfusions in certain situations as a therapy for patients with low oxygen carrying capacity or to correct coagulation problems.