As she lay on the operating table, her hands trembled more from fear than from pain. “I’m not afraid of the surgery, doctor,” she whispered. “I’m afraid of the injection in my back. My neighbour says she has suffered from back pain ever since her caesarean section.”It is a conversation anaesthesiologists hear almost every day.

A few minutes later, spinal anaesthesia was administered. Soon, the operating room echoed with the unmistakable cry of a newborn. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she heard the sound every parent longs for. The surgery was uneventful, her recovery smooth, and within days she returned home with her baby in her arms.

Months later, she began experiencing occasional backache. She attributed it to the spinal injection. Yet her days were now filled with lifting an ever-growing infant, bending over the crib, carrying the baby for hours, breastfeeding in awkward postures, and coping with sleep deprivation.Like many mothers, every ache reminded her of - not pregnancy, not childcare, not altered biomechanics but the tiny needle that had been inserted into her back.

The spinal anaesthesia had become the silent........

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