With the development of medical technology, the application of epidural anesthesia is increasing as a method to control labor pain. However, researchers have often reported conflicting results with regard to the effect of epidural anesthesia on delive...
With the development of medical technology, the application of epidural anesthesia is increasing as a method to control labor pain. However, researchers have often reported conflicting results with regard to the effect of epidural anesthesia on delivery and there has not been an exhaustive survey on pregnant women’s perception of epidural anesthesia. Thus, this study was conducted in order to survey pregnant women’s perception and intention of epidural anesthesia and to compare delivery outcomes and labor pain according to the application of epidural anesthesia, and ultimately to provide useful information to pregnant women in the field of childbirth and support their decision making.
The subjects of this study were 117 pregnant women who had been over 36 weeks of pregnancy, were under prenatal care at a metropolitan hospital in Seoul, and had natural childbirth ahead, and data were collected from December 2, 2013 to May 31, 2014. Each participant was asked to filled out a structured questionnaire two times, first at 36weeks of pregnancy while visiting obstetric outpatient clinic, second at 2 days after childbirth at obstetric ward. The questionnaire included the beliefs about epidural analgesia and the childbirth experience questionnaire developed by Bussed et al.,(2007) and the pregnant women’s general and obstetric characteristics were surveyed through interviews and electronic medical records. Data were analyzed through t-test, χ2-test, Pearson’s correlation analysis, and ANOVA using SPSS Win 20.0.
The findings were as follow:
1) During pregnancy, 62.4% of the women were planning to use epidural anesthesia, 15.4% did not intend it and about 22.2% had not made any decision yet.
2) The mean score of perception of epidural anesthesia was 59.90 in pregnant women who had epidural anesthesia, and 54.48 in those who did not (t=3.68, p<.001). Thus, women who had the positive perception of epidural anesthesia were more likely to receive it.
3) The incidence of getting an actual epidural anesthesia was significantly different according to whether the pregnant women had an intention of epidural anesthesia or not(χ2=10.87, p=.004).
4) In the results of examining the perception of epidural anesthesia according to pregnant women’s general and obstetric characteristics, multiparous experience in epidural anesthesia in previous childbirth had a positive effect on their perception of epidural anesthesia (t=6.16, p=<.001), but no other characteristic made a difference in the perception.
5) Difference were found in delivery type(χ2=8.64, p=.01), duration of 2nd stage labor(t=3.70, p=<.001), oxygen apply(χ2=5.01, p=.03) and arterial cord blood pH(t=2.64, p=.01) between the women with epidural anesthesia and the women without.
6) Whether the women had epidural anesthesia or not according to their initial intention were not associated with perceived labor pain.
7) Pregnant women with a positive perception of epidural anesthesia tended to think labor pain negatively(r=.32, p=.02), and those with high anxiety about pain also thought labor pain negatively(r=.30, p=.001).
According to the results of this study, pregnant women’s perception of epidural anesthesia was positive, and when they expected a pain control effect they showed an intention to have epidural anesthesia and their performance rate in actual childbirth was also significantly high.
Despite the expected effect of epidural anesthesia, however, labor pain experienced by pregnant women was not different according to whether to have epidural anesthesia, and rather the group with epidural anesthesia showed a significantly increased frequency of Caesarean section and vacuum extraction and a significantly extended duration of 2nd stage labor. Healthcare professionals need to provide education and information about epidural anesthesia with evidences, and also each woman’s intention and decision to take epidural anesthesia should be considered for best outcomes of childbirth.