Anesthesia, analgesia for vaginal childbirth. Differences in maternal perceptions.

An exploratory study of 77 primiparous women during the first 48 hours postpartum tested for differences between those who had received epidural anesthesia, those who had received analgesia during labor with local or pudendal block for delivery, and those who had received no analgesia and either no anesthesia or local or pudendal block for delivery. No group differences were found in self-esteem, feelings about the childbirth experience at the time of delivery, or maternal perception of her infant as compared to her perception of an average infant. Those receiving epidural anesthesia had less positive feelings about the childbirth experience at the time of the interview, but they described their views of their infants at birth more positively and with more identifying remarks than either of the other two groups. No differences were found in self-esteem, feelings about the childbirth experience at time of delivery or at the time of interview, or maternal perception of the newborn compared to that of an average infant by those who attended childbirth classes and those who did not.