Obstetric Anesthesia

Overview

Each month three CA-2 and CA-3 residents rotate daily to provide 24-hour-a-day care for laboring and expecting mothers.

 

Experience

With roughly 2500 deliveries a year, residents gain experience in:

  • placing labor epidurals
  • combined spinal-epidurals
  • spinal anesthetics
  • anesthetic management of high-risk situations including:
    • pre-eclampsia
    • HELLP syndrome
    • placenta abruption
    • placenta accreta/increta/percreta
    • uterine rupture
    • multiple gestations

Resident education begins with the pre-operative assessment to identify women at high risk of complications. Residents learn to tailor each anesthetic plan to ensure the highest level of safety for both mother and fetus. The rotation provides anatomical models for practicing neuraxial anesthesia and incorporates the use of ultrasound to enhance placement of neuraxial anesthesia in patients with abnormal anatomy and/or morbid obesity. 

About 

The Children’s Hospital of Georgia is home to one of the region’s leading perinatal centers with a level IV neonatal intensive care unit. It is not uncommon to provide peripartum care for mothers delivering at 23-24 weeks' gestation and neonates with severe congenital malformations that require advanced support.

AU Health houses eight labor and delivery rooms, and one operating room reserved for cesarean sections with the ability to open other operating rooms for obstetric care as needed. Residents gain experience responding to a variety of peri- and intra-operative emergencies such as hemorrhage, uterine atony, difficult airways, and the management of maternal cardiopulmonary disease, sickle cell disease, HIV, super morbid obesity, and poly-substance abuse.

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