Labour Analgesia and Maternal Outcomes

Introduction: Epidural analgesia is the most commonly used labour analgesia but its maternal obstetric outcomes are widely disputed. Aim: To analyse effect of labour analgesia on maternal outcomes. Material & Methods: This single centre study analysed the maternal outcomes of lumbar analgesia. 287 low-risk pregnant women was included in the study, 137 women received epidural analgesia for relief of labour pain in the study group and 150 women served as control. Maternal outcomes that were studied included Atonic PPH, MROP, Lateral wall laceration, etc. Results: Out of the 13.9% who developed complications in the epidural group, 4.4% had atonic PPH whereas out of the 11.3% who developed complications in the non-epidural group, 2% had atonic PPH but this was found to be statistically insignificant. Conclusion: Epidural labour analgesia was found to cause no adverse maternal obstetric outcomes.