March 14, 2012

expert reaction to Cochrane review of pain relief during labour

A review by the The Cochrane Library found that there is better evidence for the effectiveness of drug-based approaches for relieving labour pains than non-drug approaches.

Peter Brocklehurst, Professor of Women’s Health and Director of the Institute for Women’s Health at University College London, said:

“This important ‘review of reviews’ clearly shows that many methods of pain relief in labour, particularly non-drug methods such as massage and immersion in water, are not well researched. For example, we have good evidence about how effective epidurals are, but we also know they have problems, including an increased risk of forceps and ventouse births. On the other hand, when it comes to many other, non-drug, interventions such as massage and TENS, the evidence base is much poorer. This does not mean that these methods don’t work – just that we don’t know whether they do or do not work because the research needed to know this has not been done.

“Altogether this means that women may be using methods which are not effective, or being denied methods which are effective and which may improve their labour without them having to use epidurals. We urgently need to do this research so that women know what works and what doesn’t.”

‘Pain management for women in labour: an overview of systematic reviews’ by L. Jones et al., published in The Cochrane Library on Wednesday 14th March.