Variation in Hospital Neuraxial Labor Analgesia Rates in California

( Anesthesiology . 2024; 140:1098–110. doi:10.1097/ALN.0000000000004961) Neuraxial analgesia (NA) includes epidural, spinal, and combined spinal-epidural analgesia, and is recommended to be available in all maternity hospitals in the United States. There are significant maternal benefits to this effective method of pain reduction during labor and delivery and though this recommendation was instituted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists there is little data about the prevalence of NA and about factors that can account for variation in its use or accessibility. This study was designed to assess hospital variation in the prevalence of NA using maternal discharge and vital statistics data in California.