[Verified Answer]: The nurse is caring for a 27-year-old…

The nurse is caring for a 27-year-old patient in labor. The provider has ordered a systemic drug for relief of the patient’s pain during labor. When administering the systemic drug to the patient, the nurse would be aware of which effects of this type of pain relief? Effects on the newborn can include significant neonatal respiratory depression. Intramuscular (IM) administration is preferred over intravenous (IV) administration. Systemic analgesics cross the maternal blood-brain barrier as easily as they do the fetal blood-brain barrier. IV patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) results in increased use of an analgesic.