[Maternal postures and epidural analgesia during labour]

The evolution of birth is of interest for obstetricians and midwives. Postures with asymmetric stretching and balance, kneeling, or sitting have been claimed to be able to help foetal head rotation. Although walking during labour have no influence on the outcome of labour, hip-flexed postures enlarging the pelvic diameter are yet evaluated to improve the obstetric course of labour. In a prospective randomised study including 93 parturients, we compared the supine 30 degrees lateral tilt (control group) to three hip-flexed postures: sitting (S), right hip-flexed left lateral position (L) and left hip-flexed right lateral position (R). Epidural analgesia with 12 ml ropivacaine 0.1% and sufentanil 0.5 microg/ml was administered over a period of six minutes. The total epidural spread was 15+/-0.3 dermatomes and the upper level of thermo-analgesic blockade reached T7-T8 (T5 to T10) in each group. There were no differences between groups for the left and right total spread and upper level of epidural blockade, for the time to maximal block and pain relief. There was no motor block and no maternal or foetal side effects. We conclude that, for the three hip-flexed postures tested, position does not influence local anesthetic spread or symmetry of analgesia after induction of obstetric epidural anaesthesia.