In today's podcast, we're going to talk about effects of the epidural on the second stage of labor.

Welcome to the Evidence-Based Birth Podcast.

Join us each week as I tackle the evidence

on another hot topic about childbirth.

As a reminder, this information is not medical advice.

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Hi everyone, this is Rebecca Decker.

I'm a nurse with my PhD and the founder of

evidence-based birth in today's podcast we're going to continue our series on pain

management during labor and this is our last episode about the effects of epidurals.

In the last few weeks we've talked about an overview of pros and cons of epidurals,

and we've also talked about the potential effects of epidurals on breastfeeding.

Today we're going to focus in on the effects of the

epidural on the second stage of labor. The second stage of labor begins when the

cervix is fully dilated including the pushing phase and ends when the baby is born. This is an important

topic about the length of the second stage of labor because longer second

stages have been linked with worse health outcomes for the mother

including a higher risk of infection, a higher risk of

having a severe tear, a higher risk of postpartum hemorrhage, and a higher risk of

needing of fourseps, vacuum, or cesarean. Researchers have written that epidurals could potentially decrease the

mother's pushing efforts, reduce the effectiveness of contractions during the

...