Abstract
(Birth. 2019;46(1):97–104) Although nitrous oxide provides less effective labor analgesia compared with neuraxial modalities, its popularity is increasing in the United States. At the authors’ tertiary center, ∼20% of women choose to use nitrous oxide, and of those who use nitrous oxide and have vaginal deliveries, 40% convert to neuraxial analgesia. Although nearly half report low or intermediate analgesic effectiveness with nitrous oxide, 93% report high satisfaction with their overall analgesia experience. Satisfaction can be difficult to assess and is influenced by many factors, including perceived involvement in medical decisions, personal expectations and quality of the patient-caregiver relationship. This study aimed to identify determinants of satisfaction in women who use nitrous oxide as their sole labor analgesic in vaginal births to better understand patient motivations to use nitrous oxide despite variable analgesic effectiveness.
Published Version
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