Clinical observation on the relief of labor pain using continuous epidural anesthesia

Objective:To investigate the pain relieving effectiveness of continuous epidural anesthesia and its influence on mothers and infants.Methods:160 pregnant women without any obstetric complications and anesthetic contraindications were selected as the observed group and were applied with epidural anesthesia when the cervixes opened to be larger than 3cm.160 cases with similar obstetric conditions were regarded as the control group without using any anesthesia.We compared the degree of labor pain,duration,delivery mode,the incidence of postpartum hemorrhage,fetal distress,neonatal asphyxia between the two groups.Results:There were significant difference in the rate of oxytocin utilization,vaginal delivery and the time of stage Ⅱ labor.There were no obvious difference in the active phase of labor course,the incidence of cesarean birth,fetal distress,neonatal asphyxia and postpartum hemorrhage between the two groups.Conclusion:The results indicate that peridural analgesia affects the time length of stage Ⅱ labor and the delivery mode.