Epidural analgesia information sessions provided by anesthetic nurses: impact on satisfaction and anxiety of parturient women a prospective sequential study

BACKGROUND: Information on epidural analgesia delivered to parturient women is frequently incomplete, making it difficult for expectant mothers to make an appropriate choice for their delivery. We assessed the impact of a multimodal information session on epidural analgesia delegated to anesthetic nurses on new-mothers’ satisfaction. METHODS: We performed a prospective sequential study including parturient women who gave birth with epidural analgesia. During the first period, information on epidural analgesia was delivered by anesthetists during the scheduled anesthesia consultation, according to French standard-of-care. Then, a dedicated information session about epidural analgesia provided by anesthetic nurses was implemented. The primary endpoint was the satisfaction of women with the quality of information received. Main secondary endpoints were knowledge of women about epidural analgesia, anxiety before epidural catheter placement, and satisfaction with delivery. RESULTS: 259 and 298 women were included during the first and second periods respectively, among whom 178 and 188 were analyzed. Information on epidural analgesia delivered by anesthetic nurses was associated with improvement of new-mothers’ satisfaction with information received (9 (8–10) vs. 10 (9–10) – p < 0.001). Moreover, information delivered by anesthetic nurses was associated with decreased anxiety before epidural catheter placement (4 (1–8) vs. 3 (1–6) – p = 0.006) and increased satisfaction with delivery (8 (7–10) vs. 9 (8–10) – p = 0.01). Women’s knowledge on epidural analgesia was durably increased when information was delivered by anesthetic nurses compared to conventional information by anesthetists. After adjustment, the only variable associated with both new mothers’ satisfaction with information and delivery was the information session taught by anesthetic nurses. CONCLUSIONS: Information sessions on epidural analgesia delivered by anesthetic nurses was associated with improved satisfaction of women with their delivery. Such information sessions may be used in maternity wards to improve new-mothers’ childbirth experience. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12871-022-01647-z.