Intrapartum pain: pharmacologic management.

Even with the tremendous therapeutic benefit of nonpharmaceutical pain relief measures for laboring women, pharmaceutical therapies often are needed. Nurses and other health care providers need to be familiar with the differing pharmaceutical properties of commonly prescribed pain-relieving drugs. The pharmaceutical properties of sedatives and hypnotics, opioids, and local anesthetic agents used to relieve pain during labor and delivery are reviewed. Individualization of drug therapy and maximal therapeutic effects result when the health care provider is informed about the pharmaceutical properties of analgesic and anesthetic agents so that a wise choice can be made.