Re: Memory, birth, and general anesthetics

[Beth Benoit]

Title: Re: Memory, birth, and general anesthetics

Could the general anesthesia have been or included scopolamine?  This is a drug commonly used during labor.   It does not dull the pain with much effectiveness, BUT the patient can't REMEMBER the pain.  Its effects might be argued (by me, but also others!) as rather anti-female.  It actually meanders down the same path as the tree-falling-in-the-forest:  even if the patient was in agony, if she can't remember it, was there any pain?? Anyhow, if the patient is particularly sensitive or had an bit of an overdose, I'd think it might have a significant effect on memory, even after the patient was "awake." Beth Benoit University of Massachusetts Lowell On Fri, 15 Oct 1999, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > A student asked me why she might not have remembered much about her > hospital stay after she gave birth. She told me that her mother took > many pictures of her with the new baby but she has no memory for > many of the events in the pictures. Can memory be affected by having > recently given birth? > On the other hand, just before she left, she told me that several > hours after the pictures were taken, she had been given a general > anesthetic (I don't know why: she didn't offer a lot of > information). I thought that this might have affected the > consolidation of long-term memories. Is that possible?