Doctors have long known that administering epidurals to birthing mothers prolong the amount of time it takes for delivery. However, a recent study shows that the additional time added by the use of epidurals may be longer than previously thought.
The new study was authored by University of California Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yvonne W. Cheng, MD, Ph and her colleagues. The study shows that delivery times can be extended by as much as 2 hours when epidural anesthesia is used. The results are similar for first time (nulliparous) mothers as well as women (multiparous) who have given birth in the past.
The study was published in the March issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. For the study, researchers gathered data from over 42,000 cases of vaginal births. The data was gathered between 1976 and 2008, making this study one of the most comprehensive studies on obstetrics.
"Minimizing primary cesarean delivery is a priority," said Cheng. "Two common indications of cesarean during labor are active phase arrest and arrest of descent."
The researchers compared the delivery times of women who were given epidurals and women who went through labor without the use of these pain killers. For nulliparous women, births where epidurals were not used lasted around 197 minutes while births where epidurals were used lasted 336 minutes. On the other hand, the results for multifarious women were 81 minutes without epidurals and 225 minutes with epidurals. The data conclusively shows a time difference of 2 hours and 19 minutes, and 2 hours and 54 minutes for nulliparous and multiparous women respectively.
"Although recommendations for intervention during the second stage of labor have been made based on a 1-hour difference in the setting of epidural use, it appears that the 95th percentile duration is actually more than 2 hours longer with epidural during labor for both nulliparous and multiparous women," said the authors of the study.
Under the current definition of the term "prolonged labor," the researchers concluded that almost 30 percent of first time mothers who were given epidurals experienced prolonged birth. While the methodology used in the study is currently under scrutiny, the results show potentially alarming results regarding the necessity of painkillers during childbirth.
