Studies on Epidurals Slowing Progress?

kellyk17

I am commited to a natural birth for many reasons, but a convo on my birth month board brought up that there is little to no evidence that epidurals can slow labor and lead to more interventions.

Does anyone know of any studies that looked at this? Googling hasn't gotten me very far. It's not going to change my mind, I'm just curious.

jess9802

This blog post is written by an anesthesiologist. The tone is not natural childbirth friendly, but she does cite studies on the questions presented in the post.

https://theadequatemother.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/epidurals-and-progression-of-labour/

mrssamarataylor

This is a neutral information page about what Epidurals are. I don't believe there is a bias towards natural or medicated birth. 

 

https://americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/epidural.html

 

 if you scroll down to the common questions about epidurals they do speak about how the medicine can slow down labor and call need for pitocin or other medical interventions. HTH! 

  

kellyk17

Thank you so much for the information!

ssemovsk

I have heard several stories from my friends about how they were too numb to know whether or not they were pushing because of the epidural and this 'slowed' the pushing process. I've also heard the epidural wasn't strong enough to help with pushing pains so who knows. I was in labor for 36 hours with back labor and I didn't get an epidural. It's doable but I can understand why women cave and get it

HeathernSteven

scholar.google.com is the best place to do research if you are just surging the net.