Background: Epidural block stands as the prevailing, secure, and efficient approach to labor analgesia. Inadequate maternal cooperation not only hampers anesthesia effectiveness but also may lead to severe consequences, including nerve damage due to positional changes. Methods: A randomized controlled clinical trial with 200 participants was conducted to compare painless delivery with epidural alone versus a combination of butorphanol nasal spray preceding epidural administration for painless delivery. The objective was to assess the combined approach’s efficacy in diminishing maternal pain and enhancing maternal compliance. Results: Within 8-min post-anesthesia, the combined analgesic group (EXP group) exhibited significantly lower maternal pain intensity scores, improved maternal cooperation, reduced visual analogue scale (VAS) pain, and McGill scores compared to the epidural alone group (CTRL group). No statistically significant differences emerged in 24-h postpartum blood loss, labor duration, or lactation period. Neonatal indicators, including umbilical artery blood PCO2, base excess of extracellular fluid (BE-ecf), weight, and Apgar score, showed no significant differences between the EXP and CTRL groups. However, the EXP group demonstrated a higher umbilical artery blood pH than the CTRL group. The EXP group exhibited significantly higher probabilities of pain intensity scores ≤ 6, maternal cooperation scores ≤ 3, VAS scores ≤ 3 at 6-, 8-, and 10-min post-anesthesia, and McGill scores of 0 compared to the CTRL group. Conclusion: Butorphanol nasal spray emerges as an effective means to alleviate pain during epidural puncture in labor analgesia, markedly improving maternal anesthesia adherence. This combined analgesic method proves to be a safe and efficacious approach for maternal pain relief during labor.

Objective: To elucidate the neural mechanisms through which neonatal exposure to low‐dose anesthetic isoflurane (ISO) enhances adult fear memory, specifically examining neural oscillations and activation patterns in the mediodorsal thalamus (MDL), dentate gyrus (DG), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and medial entorhinal cortex (MEC). Methods: Male C57BL/6 mice received 0.75% ISO or saline injections at postnatal day 7 (P7). At 6 months, contextual fear‐memory testing was conducted (Saline + Air: n = 14; Saline + ISO: n = 13). Neural correlates were assessed via in vivo electrophysiology during behavioral tasks and c‐Fos immunohistochemistry in the MDL, DG, ACC, and MEC. Results: ISO‐exposed mice exhibited significantly enhanced fear memory, with >75% displaying freezing as the dominant conditional response (vs. controls). This was accompanied by increased c‐Fos+ cell density in the MDL and altered slow gamma oscillation power in fear‐processing circuits. Non‐freezing responses (e.g., jumping/darting) were reduced in the Saline + ISO group. Interpretation: Early low‐dose ISO intervention in neonatal mice enhances adult fear memory, potentially through MDL activation and slow gamma oscillation modulation. These findings indicate that low‐dose ISO may improve cognitive function by optimizing fear memory consolidation, contrasting with known detrimental effects of high‐dose anesthetics on neurodevelopment.