There is only a limited place for spinals in obstetrics.

A review of the experience with spinal analgesia for vaginal delivery and other low abdominal or perineal procedures in the Birmingham Maternity Hospital, and of the recent literature relating to the provision of spinal anesthesia for caesarean section, leads to the conclusion that the latter technique is too unreliable, and involves too great an incidence of potentially dangerous complications, to be an acceptable alternative choice to epidural analgesia.