Epidural analgesia for uneventful labour.

The effectiveness of epidural analgesia for uneventful labour was assessed in 200 patients who had received epidural blocks performed by trainee anaesthetists and whose subsequent management was supervised by trainee midwives. Although 88% of mothers were satisfied with the pain relief, only 46% had a completely painless labour after insertion of the epidural block. The major cause of pain was due to delay by attendant midwives in repeating the dose of local anaesthetic. Epidural analgesia is potentially highly effective, but in practice this seems to be related to the expertise of the anaesthetists and the midwives. Almost half the deliveries were instrumental, the proportion being greater for primipara, and this was presumably related to the epidural analgesia.