Epidural anesthesia during labor and stress incontinence after delivery.

OBJECTIVE

To test the hypothesis that epidural anesthesia during labor prevents the development of stress incontinence after vaginal birth.

METHODS

We interviewed 208 primiparas about stress incontinence 3 months postpartum. The women who developed stress incontinence after delivery were interviewed again 1 year postpartum.

RESULTS

Twelve of 45 women (27%) who had epidural anesthesia developed stress incontinence de novo after vaginal delivery, versus 21 of 163 (13%) who did not receive epidural anesthesia, a marginally significant difference (P = .05). Those who had epidural anesthesia also had a significantly longer first stage of labor. One year after delivery, three of 42 (7%) in the epidural anesthesia group had stress incontinence, compared with five of 163 (3%) in the control group.

CONCLUSION

Our results do not support the hypothesis that epidural anesthesia protects against the development of stress incontinence after vaginal delivery.