Objectives: Epidural analgesia is commonly used for relieving labor pain incontemporary clinical practice. The rate of pregnant women who request epiduralanalgesia during labor has been increasing annually, leading to a debate on the effectof epidural analgesia on maternal or neonatal outcomes.
Material and methods: The medical records of nulliparous women with a term singletonpregnancy from January to December 2019 at the Affiliated Hospital of ZunyiMedical University were retrospectively reviewed. The women were divided intothose who received epidural analgesia during delivery and those who did not receiveit. Maternal and neonatal outcomes were assessed.
Results: A total of 528 women met the inclusion criteria. The overall labor analgesiarate was 43.0% (227). Women with epidural analgesia had a significantly longersecond stage [34.5 (22.8-65.3) vs 27.0 (18.0-41.3) min, p < 0.001] and total durationof labor [698.5 (493.5-875.0) vs 489.5 (344.0-676.3) min, p < 0.001] compared withthose without epidural. There were no significant relationships between epiduralanalgesia and the normal vaginal delivery rate, the incidence of episiotomy, and otheradverse maternal or neonatal outcomes (p > 0.05).
Conclusions: Epidural analgesia can prolong the second stage of labor, but this is no increased risk for both mother and neonate.
Keywords: labor epidural analgesia; maternal and neonatal outcome.