Maternal childbirth experience and pain relief methods: a retrospective 7-year cohort study of 85 488 parturients in Finland.

While the use of medical-epidural and non-epidural-pain relief methods were not associated with odds for experiencing negative childbirth in primiparas, using epidural helps to avoid negative experience in multiparas. However, the odds for experiencing highly positive childbirth were decreased if the parturients used any medical pain relief for both primiparas and multiparas. Consequently, the effect of pain relief on the childbirth experience is strongly confounded by indication. Thus, the use of pain relief per se plays a limited role in the complex formation of the overall childbirth experience.