Forum. Epidural analgesia and forceps delivery: laying a bogey.

The spontaneous and operative delivery rates on a labour ward are compared in the years before and after the initiation of an epidural analgesia service. An epidural rate of 27% of all deliveries in the first year is the only influence affecting an otherwise almost steady obstetric background. Despite this major impact, the changes in operative delivery rates are small and fail to reach statistical significance, although the decrease in spontaneous deliveries is significant. In later years the epidural rate rose to involve 72% of primiparae and 26% of multiparae, yet the pattern of deliveries tended to return toward the pre-epidural picture.