The purpose of this study was to assess maternal satisfaction with single-dose spinal
analgesia for the management of
obstetric pain in Indonesian women. The investigation included 62 laboring women with single pregnancy at term, with 45 primigravidas and 17 multigravidas. The participants' ages ranged from 15 to 29 years. All participants were screened for physical health and were classified as healthy according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists classification system. All 62 parturients received single-dose
spinal anesthesia with a 27-gauge pencil-point needle at either the L3-4 or L4-5 intervertebral interspace, with a combination of
bupivacaine, 2.5 mg;
morphine, 0.25 mg; and
clonidine, 45 microg. Maternal satisfaction, duration of
pain relief, and side effects were studied. The overall maternal satisfaction with the single-dose spinal technique for labor
analgesia in our study group was high, with 50 patients (81%) being very satisfied, and 7 patients (11%) being satisfied with the quality of labor
analgesia. Forty-nine patients (79%) stated that they would select single-dose spinal
analgesia for
pain control in labor in the future. Our study was the first one in Indonesia to assess maternal satisfaction with single-dose spinal
analgesia for
labor pain. We concluded that single-dose spinal
analgesia with a combination of
bupivacaine,
morphine, and
clonidine provided effective
labor pain control for Indonesian women, and maternal satisfaction with this technique was very high. This technique is very cost-effective and should be recommended for routine
obstetric pain control in Indonesia and other developing countries.