Henci,

I am a childbirth educator and was shocked when during one of our classes a student presented me with a Cochrane Database study showing that baby's whose mothers received epidurals had higher APGAR scores at 5 minutes post-partum when compared to those whose mothers did not. This sounds like one of the most rediculous things I have ever heard. Are you at all familiar with this study and if so, could you offer me some insight into this?

 I have the review. To begin with, the difference just missed achieving statistical significance, which means the difference might have been due to chance. Even if it was a true difference, it amounted to fewer than one more baby with an Apgar less than 7 per 100. Third, a 5-min Apgar score less than 7 has pretty much no predictive value for any long-term outcome. But leaving all that aside, we aren't talking about epidural vs. no drugs. Women in the comparison group almost certainly had narcotic analgesia, which is well-known to have adverse effects on the baby's condition at birth.

~ Henci 

That's good to know. Thank you for the clarification.