Anesthesia and Infants: What Hospitals Don't Want You to Know

When your son was circumcised, did the hospital use anesthesia? What about your premature baby - do they use anesthesia when minor or even major medical and surgical interventions are necessary?

The answer may surprise and appall you. While operations involving the removal of a portion of a man's penis will most definitely involve serious anesthesia, a circumcision is more likely to be done without anesthesia. And while adults who are intubated or given shunts may even have general anesthesia, premature infants are unlikely to have this.

There are two reasons for this neglect. First, anesthesia's effects on babies and newborns is little understood. And second, many doctors today believe that a baby's neurological system is not developed enough for the child to feel pain.

How Does Anesthesia Affect Your Infant?

No one is really certain how anesthesia affects infants. It tends to make them groggy longer than it does for adults, which may interfere over the short term with bonding.

But it is standard medical procedure to offer mothers in childbirth anesthesia - and that anesthesia does pass through the placenta to the baby. Many, if not most, babies are born under the influence of some anesthesia, if only a decreased dose.

This anesthetic does not seem to affect babies past the first 24 hours, when they might be groggy. Judging by this, there does not appear to be a medical reason to deny babies anesthesia after the birth.

Does Your Baby Feel Pain?

Study after study has been performed on this. And while babies consistently have reacted to pain-causing stimuli, many doctors and medical researchers have insisted that these reactions are only neurological reactions to negative stimuli. Why? A baby cannot tell you that it hurts.

However, researchers in long-term studies have examined babies who received anesthesia and babies who did not. A consistent finding: babies who have received anesthesia for medical procedures do better emotionally in the long term than those who do not receive anesthesia for the same procedures. They bond better with parents, they cry less, they are less fearful and more ready to learn and try new things.

These researchers have taken this to mean that babies do indeed feel pain, though it may translate differently in an infant brain than in a mature one. And allowing a baby to feel pain has serious long-term effects. (Use the links in the resource box at the end of this article to convince your doctor of this, if you must.)

How Likely Is Your Baby To Get Anesthesia?

You need to ask your hospital, and also ask your insurance company if anesthesia is covered for your baby. Hospitals don't generally advertise a policy of not anesthetizing infants because of the understandable public outcry; if you insist on it, however, they will administer it.

Likewise, some insurance companies may not cover anesthesia for infants because of the same belief. If your insurance company doesn't, and if it is a company plan, go to your HR representatives. Tell others. Organize a petition. There is no reason to not pay for a baby's anesthesia, and there are some very serious and real reasons that babies undergoing medical procedures involving pain need to be anesthetized.

As with most medical problems, simply asking the hospital and insurance company specific questions about your baby's procedures and/or insisting on being present is usually enough to protect your little one. But don't take it for granted that your child will be anesthetized; always check to be sure.