A 29-year old patient we will refer to as “Trudy” presents in active labor with her second child. She is 7 cm dilated. Her first child was born without a labor epidural. Trudy has informed her nurse that this time she would like labor analgesia. The physician anesthesiologist arrives, interviews the patient and suggests neuraxial analgesia for labor. “Matthew,” Trudy’s husband, protests, pointing out that Trudy has a birth plan that states she does not want an epidural and that any requests from her for an epidural while she is in labor should be ignored.
In the Greek myth, Ulysses wanted to hear the song of the sirens – which was beautiful, but would inevitably lure a sailor to steer his ship onto the rocks. So he directed his crew to tie him to the mast so that he could hear the song but be prevented from misdirecting the ship,...
