Nigerian Postgraduate Medical Journal (Jan 2013)
Clinical correlates of women requesting labour epidural analgesia in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria
Abstract
Objectives: To evaluate the clinical correlates of women who received pain relief in labour with lumbar epidural analgesia and also investigate the labour outcome. Materials and Methods: A hospital -based case-control study conducted in a tertiary care facility in Nigeria. The clinical characteristics and delivery outcome of women who had epidural analgesia in labour were compared to those without. Results: The utilisation rate of labour epidural analgesia during the study period was 13/1000 women. Tertiary education was significantly higher among women who had epidural analgesia in labour (22.7% vs 3.4%, p=0.0009). There were no statistically significant differences between women who had labour epidural analgesia and the controls in terms of labour and delivery by caesarean section. The second stage of labour was prolonged in women who received epidural for pain relief in labour (p = 0.005). The neonatal indices (Mean birth weight or Apgar score <7 in first minute) were similar. Conclusion: This study suggests that labour epidural analgesia is not associated with increased caesarean section and adverse foetal outcome. This is of value inincreasing the acceptance of this service by pregnant women in Nigeria.
