Barriers and facilitators to birth without epidural in a tertiary obstetric referral center: Perspectives of health care professionals and patients

ConclusionsReconciling patient birth goals with staff focus on patient safety is challenging in the tertiary context. Discrepancies between health care professional and patient attitudes about childbirth pain may influence decision‐making about epidural use. Maintaining labor support skills is challenging for health care professionals who have limited exposure to birth without epidural. There is a need to allocate dedicated resources to better support birth without epidural. Specifically, support could be improved through the implementation of guidelines for assessment and management of labor pain, provision of a variety of pain management options, and labor support training for health care professionals.

Source: Birth - December 18, 2017 Category: OBGYN Authors: Alyssa Knox, Genevi ève Rouleau, Sonia Semenic, Malisa Khongkham, Luisa Ciofani Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research