A comparison between the effectiveness of epidural analgesia and parenteral pethidine during labor

The study was aimed to define parturients' opinion on either epidural analgesia or intravenous pethidine, and to determine the effect of both analgesics after delivery. We interviewed and examined 401 consecutive parturients who requested analgesia during the beginning of their active stage of labor. Of those, 131 women requested and underwent epidural analgesia, and 270 received parenteral pethidine. The pain experienced before admission of any analgesia, was significantly higher in the epidural group than in the parental group (mean visual analog scale (VAS) score 8.9 and 8.4, respectively; P = 0.004). However, after analgesics, women from the epidural analgesia experienced significantly less pain during labor as compared to those receiving pethidine (mean VAS scores 5.05 vs. 9.14, respectively; p < 0.001). The pain scores 24 h after labor were significantly lower in patients who underwent epidural analgesia (1.69 vs. 2.13, respectively; p < 0.001). We conclude that epidural analgesia is more effective than parenteral analgesia in pain and discomfort relief. This method is helpful also the day after delivery. Thus, epidural analgesia should be strongly recommended to all patients who do not have any medical contraindications to this method of treatment.