Evaluation of obstetric analgesia and anaesthesia: long-term maternal recollections

Opinions about pain relief were sought from a sample of 11,701 women 13 months to 9 years after giving birth. Their opinions related both to levels of satisfaction with the particular forms of pain relief used and to the presence of any feelings of deprivation of the birth process. Of all forms of pain relief examined epidural anaesthesia was associated with the highest levels of satisfaction. In vaginal deliveries, 69.4% of those who had an epidural were fully satisfied, compared with 29.5% for inhalation analgesia, 20.7% for pethidine and 29.4% for relaxation techniques. Women who had spontaneous deliveries and shorter labours were least satisfied with their epidurals, while the reverse was generally true for the other forms of pain relief. After an epidural for vaginal delivery 7.1% of women reported feelings of deprivation of the full pleasure of childbirth. This was higher than the 1.4% previously reported by women in the same maternity unit when questioned immediately after the delivery,(1) but still only represents a minority of women. After an emergency caesarean section administered under epidural feelings of deprivation were expressed by 5.1%, but by only 1.7% after an elective section under epidural. Among women using pethidine 3.5% felt that this had deprived them of the pleasure of giving birth.