Mode of vaginal delivery and epidural analgesia.

A study was carried out on the mode of vaginal delivery in two large groups of parturients: one group comprised 11,264, of whom 0.1% were given epidural analgesia (1977-78) and the other, 10,650, of whom 50% delivered under epidural blockade (1982-83). When the incidence and reasons for instrumental intervention in these two groups were analyzed, it was found that the rate of instrumental delivery was only 1.3% higher (P less than 0.001) in the latter group, which was mainly due to factors not attributable to the epidural blockade. It may be concluded from this survey that epidural analgesia for labor and delivery does not cause an increase in the rate of instrumental delivery.