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WASHINGTON, D.C. – A study presented at the annual Anesthesiology 2012 meeting revealed dramatic findings from a 10-year initiative called the “No Pain Labor N’ Delivery China Mission.” In a two-year period during 2009-11, and among 20,000 laboring women in one Chinese hospital:
- The labor epidural rate increased from 0 to 59 percent
- The Cesarean delivery rate decreased from 47 to 30 percent
- The rate of episiotomy decreased from 73 to 25 percent
- Results also showed that newborn infants were less stressed.
The mission was founded by Ling Qun Hu, M.D., a Chinese-Canadian anesthesiologist from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Dr Hu’s goal is to establish more than 10 training centers in China to teach safe and effective labor analgesia practices, particularly epidural analgesia, over a 10-year period.
Most women in China do not have the option of pain relief during labor. China has the highest overall Cesarean delivery rate globally, and the highest rate by maternal request with no medical indication.
While Chinese women express concern about the safety of and pain associated with vaginal delivery, Cesarean delivery (in both first and third-world countries) is associated with higher rates of maternal death and severe complications.
“It has been a dream for Chinese women to give birth without pain and without compromising safety,” said Dr Hu. “Common questions on Chinese childbirth websites include ‘Where can I get labor pain relief?’, ‘Which pain relief method is the best?’, and ‘Is pain relief medication safe for my baby?’”
With the No Pain Labor system, the Shijiazhuan Gynecology and Obstetrics Hospital near Beijing initiated a labor epidural service and experienced dramatic results in the first six months. Before the study period, none of the women took pain relief medication, and around 50 percent opted for Cesarean delivery. Six months into the study, more than half of the women opted to take epidural analgesia, even though 100 percent of the cost was assumed by the patient. The monthly birth rate in the hospital also went from 747 to 1,046, despite the fact that women in the community have a choice of several hospitals and two-thirds of area births take place in other facilities.