United States – According to a new analysis, any woman who has an epidural while in labor is more likely to have a significantly lower risk of moderate and severe maternal morbidity in the first six weeks of the postpartum period.
Risk Reduction and Characteristics
It revealed that incidence could be lowered by 35% among women by administering a pain-killing epidural to them, thus preventing surgery-related complications such as heart attack, heart failure, blood infection, and hysterectomy, which may occur as a result of delivery, as published by the researchers on May 22 in the BMJ.
As noted by the scientists, the risk is further reduced in women with factors associated with these complications, like increased weight, other diseases, or childbirth, as reported by HealthDay.
For those women, an epidural can cut the risk by 50% as opposed to a 33% risk reduction in the other women who do not have such characteristics.
Regarding the history of preterm delivery, it was revealed that women who delivered preterm observed a 47% reduction in risk.
Recommendations for Access
“The research team led by Rachel Kearns, an anesthesiologist with Glasgow Royal University in the U.K., recommended, ‘To continue the positive impact on maternal health, there needs to be increased uptake and improved access to epidural analgesia for women these higher risk categories. ’
Study Methodology and Findings
To reach the conclusion, the authors investigated data from more than 567,000 mothers in labor between 2007 and 2019. Maternal complications were defined as any one of 21 complications termed severe maternal morbidity, and information about maternal complications was retrieved from medical records.
However, as the research has demonstrated, many apparently do not get epidurals during delivery as well.
It was known that 22 percent of women who delivered a baby availed an epidural, and only 25% of women most likely to get complications were made to undergo the procedure.
It may also be because epidurals assist in reducing some of the physical stress reflexes in a woman’s body that is in labor. These women also might be more closely monitored during labor, and should the doctors wish to do so, they are likely to intervene.
Addressing Misconceptions
Some of the reasons behind the relatively low use of epidurals that the researchers noted are poor understanding of the safety and efficacy of using epidurals.
Regarding right faithfulness, an epidural has an ill effect on the baby; such misconception has been dismissed by other research done in the past, the researchers pointed out, as reported by HealthDay.
New investigations indicate that women are free to decide whether they should undergo epidural procedures or not, meaning that it is quite wise for doctors to brief them on some of the gains of going through the pain-relieving process during childbirth.