Anaesthesia is used to relieve pain during a caesarean section or instrumental vaginal birth. More than one type of anaesthetic can be administered. Regional anaesthesia is viewed as safer for both mother and baby, in comparison with general anaesthesia (NICE 2021).
Almost all women who have a caesarean section receive anaesthesia, except in the rare case of post-mortem delivery. In 2023, 99.6% of mothers who had a caesarean section had anaesthesia administered. Of these, 96 per 100 had a regional anaesthetic (72 per 100 spinal, 18 per 100 epidural or caudal; noting that some mothers had both) and 5.1 per 100 had a general anaesthetic.
Between 2010 and 2023, anaesthesia administration for mothers who had an instrumental vaginal birth fluctuated for both births assisted by forceps (between 89% in 2010 to 95% in 2020) and births assisted by vacuum extraction (between 75% in 2010 to 88% in 2020).
In 2023, around 9 in 10 mothers who had an instrumental vaginal birth had an anaesthetic (90% of those having a birth assisted by forceps and 87% of those having a birth assisted by vacuum extraction). Of these births, a regional anaesthetic was more common (71 per 100 including epidural or caudal, spinal and combined spinal-epidural), than a local anaesthetic to the perineum (22 per 100) or a pudendal anaesthetic (4.8 per 100).
Figure 1 presents trend data on the anaesthesia administration status of women who gave birth and had a caesarean section or instrumental vaginal birth, by selected maternal characteristics, between 2010 (or earliest available year of data) and 2023. Select the ‘Current data’ button to view 2023 data.
