Abstract A routine method of balanced obstetric analgesia and anesthesia which can be administered safely by the labor room nurses and the attending physicians is discussed. Eleven thousand eight hundred and twenty patients received intravenous pentobarbital. More than 2,000 of the author's patients received this type of anesthesia. The result of his last 1,000 consecutive anesthetics is discussed in detail. Maternal mortality and morbidity were zero. Corrected stillbirth and neonatal death rates were zero. Obstetric analgesia-anesthesia with the use of meperidine, propiomazine, and pentobarbital seems to be safe and is well accepted.