Promoting use of drug is unacceptable.

Mercy Hospital Medical Center of Des Moines, Iowa has used an advertising campaign to promote the use of drugs during childbirth. The hospital is selling the "labor epidural" to thousands of mothers-to-be.

A labor epidural is the injection of a cocaine-like drug called bupivocaine into the epidural space located at the base of a woman's spinal column during the laboring stage of childbirth. The Mercy advertisement incorrectly referred to the labor epidural as a "localized anesthetic." It is not a local anesthetic, it is a "regionalized" anesthetic, and when administered properly eliminates sensations of labor in most cases from a woman's belly to her knees. If improperly placed, it can lead to serious consequences for the mother-to-be, in extreme cases, paralysis, cardiac arrest and/or death.

When I called to express concern about the advertisement, a hospital spokesperson claimed the ad was intended to just "inform the public of another option..to be educational."

Let's not be fooled. Mercy Hospital is promoting drug use during the birth process and stands up to reap the financial rewards.

In the United States the cost of the epidural procedure varies from $250 to more than $ 1,000. Most hospital insurance covers this procedure even with uncomplicated vaginal births--which results in an overall rise in health insurance premiums.

In addition to the cost of the basic procedure, there are the indirect costs that add up quickly. Anyone receiving epidural anesthesia requires an intravenous line and much greater quantities of IV fluids to prevent a drop in blood pressure. There is a fee for fetal monitoring that routinely is used for women given epidural anesthesia. Hospitals charge rental fees for the monitors and physicians often charge an additional fee to interpret the readings.

Then, there is the cost of the additional drugs needed to stimulate the uterus, which often relaxes and will not work as well to push the baby out after the epidural has been injected. There is a rental fee, as well, for the IV pump to administer these additional drugs.

The cost of the catheterization kits must be paid also. Women who undergo this regional anesthesia have no sensation of a full bladder, so they must be catheterized every two to four hours. Note that urinary tract infection in women catheterized during labor is twice that of non-catheterized women. Infection spells more costs--in dollars for antibiotics and in degrees of discomfort.

Mercy Hospital stands to generate a great deal of money by promoting drug use in childbirth.

There is a downside to the labor epidural that Mercy describes as "a way that's safe for you and your child." It can be safe, and it has risks and can be disastrous. It can lead to a host of interventions. Consider these risks and disadvantages while you contemplate "still enjoying the wonder and joy of having a baby."

Having a labor epidural can:

* Cause a serious drop in the mother's blood pressure (hypotension). which can cause a subsequent loss of oxygen to the baby.

* Increase the length of the first stage of labor and the second stage of labor (pushing stage).

* Cause a reduction in the bearing sown reflex of a laboring woman which can increase the incidence of forceps delivery and c-section.

* Cause an increased incidence of a transverse arrest (baby's head becomes positioned crosswise in the birth canal).

* Cause serious problems if not administered properly ranging from severe headache to neuritis from damaging nerve fibers to cardiac arrest.

* Cause an increase in urinary retention problems in the mother immediately following birth and for days following.

* Decrease the newborn's sucking and rooting ability.

* Depress various orienting and alerting skills in newborns for as long as six weeks after birth.

* Cause a woman to become a "passive parent" depending upon and receiving further interventions she might hope to have avoided.

* Increase the need for pitocin to start again or speed up uterine contractions stopped or slowed down by the anesthetic.

As I look at Mercy's ad, I am struck with an image: I see the local pusher on the street saying to the impressionable, sometimes desperate child, "Try this, Susie, something so joyous (as life) doesn't have to be so painful..." The local drug pusher isn't concerned with explaining the downside of taking drugs either.

Mercy Hospital is encouraging, luring. seducing women with its "24hour-a-day, every day" offer to use drugs during their birth experiences.

This is unacceptable behavior.

Dana Ericson is a Des Moines nurse on the staff of the Des Moines Birthplace, a midwifery-run birth center.