Satisfaction, control and pain relief: short- and long-term assessments in a randomised controlled trial of low-dose and traditional epidurals and a non-epidural comparison group

Background: Childbirth is in important life event for which a positive experience is important to many women. Methods: As secondary outcomes from the randomised controlled Comparative Obstetric Mobile Epidural Trial, various aspects of satisfaction were assessed in women who had one of three types of regional analgesia (two of which were low-dose techniques and it high-dose control using 0.25% epidural bulpivacaine) and a comparison group who did not have epidural analgesia, shortly after delivery and 12 months later. Results: The predominant finding was satisfaction with spontaneous vaginal delivery whatever the mode of analgesia. The overall immediate and long-term satisfaction wits similar for all three neuraxial techniques. Satisfaction with the speed of pain relief and the amount of mobility were significantly greater for the combined spinal-epidural technique compared with the low-dose infusion (P