7 Healthcast: Labor pains

7 Healthcast Reporter Dr. Deanna Lites has more.

Jacuzzis to hypnosis; there are a menu of pain control options for laboring women. For those who choose epidurals timing may be everything.

Researchers followed 70 women in labor with their first babies who requested spinal-epidural pain medicine. Those who labored between noon and 6 p.m. got more than 25 percent longer pain relief from a single dose compared to those who labored after 8 p.m.

Researchers say the findings suggest that biologic rhythms, the body's clock that affects everything from sleeping patterns to blood pressure, impacts the effectiveness of epidural pain relief.

Researchers note that more studies are needed to better understand the timing-labor pain relief connection but say in the future keeping an eye on the clock may help doctors tailor the right dose for moms to be.

The study tested the drug, Fentanyl, one of the commonly used drugs for labor pain relief. This is the first study to test the impact of the body's inner clock on pain relief and is published in the Medical Journal Anesthesiology.

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