Women from more deprived backgrounds are less likely to have an epidural, finds study

Women from poorer backgrounds are less likely to have an epidural during labour than women from richer backgrounds, even when it is medically indicated, a study has found.Overall 131 521 of nearly 600 000 women (22.2%) who were in labour between January 2007 and October 2020 in Scotland received epidural pain relief, according to NHS data.But when researchers looked at the socioeconomic status of the women they found that there was an absolute difference in epidural use of 4% between women from the most deprived (21.2%, 95% confidence interval 20.8% to 21.4%) and women from the wealthiest backgrounds (25.2%, 95% CI 24.8% to 25.6%).This difference persisted among the 21 219 deliveries with a medical indication for an epidural, with the poorest 10% of women 21% less likely to receive an epidural than the richest 10% (relative risk 0.79, 0.75 to 0.84), an absolute difference of 2% (23% v 25%), showed…
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