Effect of Availability of a Parturient-elective Regional Labor Pain Relief Service on the Mode of Delivery

The use of regional analgesia for pain relief during labor has become increasingly common in ob-stetric practice. Intrapartum regional analgesia is now used by more than 50 % of parturients in the United States.1 Although this form of obstet-ric analgesia has been shown to be a safe and ef-fective method of pain relief, there is controversy regarding the effect of regional analgesia on the rate of cesarean births due to the indication of dystocia.2–7 Elevated rates of instrument-assisted vaginal delivery associated with the conduction of analgesia have also been reported.5,6,8 Differ-ences in study design have made it difficult to compare reported data on the effect of regiona