[Early analgesia does not block labor in first pregnancies]

Pain during labor alters the well-being of the mother and fetus. Peridural analgesia may prevent pain, but some physicians prefer to administrate this until labor has progressed in order to avoid blocking labor so a cesarean surgery would be required. In this case, the mother suffers pain until labor has progressed enough to apply analgesia. Thus, the mother suffers pain while labor has progressed enough. Cesarean surgery increases maternal morbidity, thus it is important to evaluate labor progression when analgesia is applied at an early or advanced stage of labor. This study evaluated the effect of early analgesia on labor progression. First pregnancies at a latent or active stage of labor were included. Ropivacaine peridural analgesia was applied. All the patients completed labor (latent labor: final dilation 10 cm (10-10 cm); active labor: final dilation 10 cm (10-10 cm); p = 0.812). The proportion of patients undergoing cesarean surgery was not different between the groups (four in latent labor (7%), eight in active labor (12%); p = 0.545). Our results suggest that early analgesia may be applied without compromising labor progression.