Use of epidural in childbirth is linked to decreased severe maternal morbidity

In a study of vaginal births in New York State hospitals, labor neuraxial analgesia—having an epidural or combined spinal and epidural—was associated with a decreased risk of severe maternal morbidity. Deliveries with a neuraxial analgesic also lessened the risk of post-partum hemorrhaging, the leading cause of preventable severe maternal morbidity, according to the research conducted at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S). The researchers found that a decreased risk of severe maternal morbidity associated with neuraxial analgesia was similar between non-Hispanic White women and racial and ethnic minority women. The results are published online in JAMA Network Open.