Doctors: Women have the right to pain relief and improved comfort during childbirth

State authorities in charge of the health care system are obliged to provide special health care to pregnant women (Article 68(3) of the Polish Constitution), which means that efforts should be made to ensure that every woman in labor has actual, and not just declared, access to anesthesia during childbirth. Currently, under the Regulation of the Minister of Health of August 16, 2018 on the organizational standard of perinatal care (Journal of Laws 2023, item 1324), women have the right to use various non-pharmacological and pharmacological methods of relieving labor pain, including anesthesia, but its actual availability varies depending on the medical institution and the staff resources it has to perform anesthesia.

Efforts to ensure that every woman - unless there are medical contraindications to anesthesia - can realistically benefit from this form of pain relief are absolutely worthy of support, as it is a matter of improving the comfort and safety of the parturient. The realization of this task will require, among other things, the correct valuation of the service that includes epidural anesthesia, but also the valuation of the 24-hour readiness of medical facilities to perform this anesthesia during labor.

The Supreme Medical Council points out that the significant percentage of deliveries by cesarean section in Poland, which has been maintained for many years (compared to other European countries), may have its source precisely in women's fear of being exposed to pain during natural childbirth without access to anesthesia.

The medical community believes that women should be able to realize their right to pain relief and improved comfort during childbirth, and the State should make efforts to ensure that this right can be realized.

Source: NIL