Epidural analgesia is widely used during labor, but its effect on neonatal infection isn't clear. Researchers evaluated the association between epidural analgesia in labor and neonatal infection in a large cohort of full-term nulliparous women who had vaginal deliveries.

The final study population included 37,786 women, of whom 19,968 (52.8%) received epidural analgesia. Of these women, 15,401 were individually matched by propensity score with women who didn't receive epidural analgesia.

In the matched cohort, use of epidural analgesia during labor was associated with an increased risk of neonatal infection (relative risk [RR], 2.43), including a greater risk of neonatal sepsis (RR, 3.50) and uncharacterized infection (RR, 2.69), than nonuse of epidural analgesia.