Involving a Dedicated Epidural-Caring Nurse in Labor Ward Practice Improves Maternal Satisfaction towards Childbirth: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

The quality of healthcare is crucially linked to patient satisfaction, particularly in the provision of neuraxial analgesia for labor pain. Neuraxial analgesia for labor pain control should ideally be readily available when requested. However, in real-world practice, anesthesiologists may not always respond immediately to maternal demands, which can compromise the quality of care. To address this issue, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of involving a dedicated nurse in epidural care to improve maternal satisfaction. This study was conducted in a single tertiary center. Medical records of women with singleton pregnancies above 36 gestational weeks who received neuraxial analgesia for labor pain control were reviewed (N = 354). Among them, 104 women (29%) received care from a dedicated nurse. The results showed that involving a dedicated nurse led to higher maternal satisfaction scores before (4.7 ± 0.5 versus 4.5 ± 0.6, p = 0.001), during (4.7 ± 0.6 versus 4.5 ± 0.6, p = 0.002), and at 24 h postpartum (4.7 ± 0.5 versus 4.5 ± 0.5, p = 0.001), without any adverse impact on maternal, neonatal, or epidural-related complications. These findings suggest that allocating a dedicated nurse to epidural care can effectively enhance maternal satisfaction and potentially improve overall care quality.

Establishment of Labor Epidural Analgesia Service and its Assessment: An Experience in a Hospital of a Middle-Income Country

“…Epidural analgesia for childbirth is a highly effective pain therapy as reported in all published studies, while the satisfaction with this method of treatment depends on the method of the survey in terms of scoring satisfaction from 1 to 10, or simply according to the declaration at the end of the birth: very satisfied, satisfied, not satisfied [7][8][9]. In our sample, there was one unsatisfied patient, despite the successful epidural analgesia as measured by the VAS score, compared to all other patients who were highly satisfied, which suggests that the patient's answer regarding her satisfaction is highly subjective.…”