Epidural Use During Labor: A Quality Improvement Project

Labor is a complex and highly individual process. Anesthesia and analgesia-related preferences are an important element of biith plans and should be introduced and identified as soon as possible during pregnancy so women can make infonned decisions at the time of delivery. Fifty­eight percent of women who had a vaginal delivery birth received epidural or spinal anesthesia (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics, 2017). Early education regarding epidural analgesia may provide an opportunity for planned thoughtful discussion and offer women the ability to advocate for themselves in their birthing plan. A quality improvement project sought to assess and implement a change in knowledge regarding epidural analgesia use during labor among pregnant females who attended pre-natal child birthing classes. Twenty-nine participants from three prenatal classes received current evidence­based information regarding epidural analgesia from a trained anesthesia provider via oral presentation. Participants' knowledge and attitudes toward epidurals was assessed by pre and post surveys that contained an epidural knowledge test and open-ended questions. The post knowledge test had a higher mean (7.4483) than the pre-knowledge test mean (5.7241). The paired samples test indicated a significant difference in post-tests scores over pre-test scores with a p-value of less than 0.001. Open-ended question responses indicated that participants appreciated having a live interactive educational presentation, felt less fear, less stress, and more comfortable with the idea of having epidural analgesia.