Women who have an epidural during labour face a lower risk of severe complications during childbirth, according to a study.
Making epidurals more widely available and providing more information to those who would benefit from one is important, researchers said.
The study by the University of Glasgow and the University of Bristol involved 567,216 women who were in labor in Scottish hospitals run by the UK's National Health Service (NHS) from 2007 and 2019, and went on to give birth vaginally or by an unplanned caesarean section.