Evaluation of epidural analgesia.

Lumbar epidural analgesia is outstandingly the best and most reliable method of pain relief in labour. It offers great advantages to both mother and child in cases of obstetric or pertinent non-obstetric abnormality. However, it demands care and attention, and requires a conduct of labour which in some cases is different from that to which most clinicians and midwives have been accustomed. It is necessary, therefore, that considerable experience be gained in the range of responses which may be evoked before the service is provided for mothers and infants who are at risk.