Pain relief ‘doesn’t lead to more satisfying births’

MOST IRISH first-time mothers opt for the epidural … But reducing the pain levels doesn’t necessarily mean a more satisfying birth experience …

The HSE report involved a study of … women who had babies in the Midwifery-led Units (MLUs) … despite having fewer epidurals, 83 per cent of women in the midwife-led units expressed satisfaction with their pain relief, compared with 68 per cent of women in the consultant-led unit.

… midwife-led care was as safe as consultant-led care, resulted in less intervention, gave birthing mothers greater satisfaction and was more cost-effective.

… the epidural was very effective in complicated labours, for example where the birth was being induced or sped up.

However, in normal pregnancy … three forms of care reduced epidural use: one-to-one care in labour given by a midwife; access to water immersion, … and access to self- hypnosis or hypnobirthing.

“When those three forms of care are widely available for women, we see quite a low rate of epidural, even in first-time births. These forms of care are available in birth centres and in home birth situations … ”

… the downsides of epidural use … included an increase in forceps or vacuum delivery, a lengthening of labour and an increased need for oxytocic drugs to induce labour.

“Research on women’s satisfaction with labour has found that the one-on-one support they got from the midwife was a much more important part of the actual experience than the experience of pain. Paradoxically, a lot of women talk about a high level satisfaction along with a high level of pain.”