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Women frequently request regional analgesia during labour, yet little is known about how long it takes before they become comfortable. This prospective observational study aimed to determine various time-points following maternal request for regional analgesia in labour until comfort was achieved. It was conducted in two tertiary referral centres for maternity care in Australia between December 2009 and May 2010. Midwives and anaesthetists recorded times of maternal request for regional analgesia, anaesthetist contact, anaesthetist's arrival in the labour room, local anaesthetic infiltration on starting the procedure, injection of neuraxial local anaesthetic and first report of maternal comfort. Composite median times and interquartile range were recorded for maternal request to anaesthetist arrival, anaesthetist arrival to maternal comfort and total time from request to comfort. Statistical modelling and regression analyses assessed possible factors associated with these time intervals. A P value <0.05 was considered significant. Of the 324 maternal requests, 244 out of 324 (75.3%, 95% confidence interval 70.2% to 79.9%) were recorded as having achieved satisfactory labour analgesia. Median interquartile range times observed were: maternal request to anaesthetist arrival: 20 (10 to 35) minutes; anaesthetist arrival to maternal comfort: 40 (30 to 50) minutes; and total time from request to comfort: 65 (50 to 85) minutes. We have shown that approximately one hour is required for a mother to achieve comfort following her request for epidural analgesia during labour. Our findings are likely to provide useful information for antenatal education, enhance informed consent and improve the provision of anaesthetic services for labour analgesia.

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