The descent of the fetal head is not modified by mobile epidural analgesia: a controlled sonographic study

Abstract

The aim of our study was to assess the sonographic indices of fetal head progression obtained by three-dimensional ultrasound during the second stage of labor in women with and without mobile epidural analgesia. Sonographic volume data sets were obtained with a transperineal approach every 20 min from the beginning of the active second stage until delivery. The ultrasound parameters were calculated off-line from each volume and compared between women with and without epidural analgesia. All the sonographic measurements of the fetal head descent were comparable at each time interval between the two groups. This observation suggests that mobile epidural analgesia is not likely to affect the dynamics of the second stage of labor.

Prediction of delivery mode by ultrasound‐assessed fetal position in nulliparous women with prolonged first stage of labor

“…In this study we tested only variables known at the time of the ultrasound examination in the multivariable analysis, and we did not include oxytocin augmentation and epidural analgesia because around 90% of the women had epidural analgesia and oxytocin augmentation. Longitudinal studies are important in investigating changes during labor, and a recently published longitudinal study did not find any influence of epidural analgesia on fetal rotation during labor. The use of a sonopartogram including fetal position and level and cervical dilatation might change the method of surveillance of labor in the future.…”