Term: Vaginal Births with Epidural Anesthesia
Last Updated: 2012-11-05
This measure identifies the number of women giving birth vaginally (who received an epidural) and is calculated by dividing this number by the number of women giving birth vaginally in a given time and place. Analyses were limited to 2004/05 onwards due to coding changes, where an anaesthesia code is provided for each intervention that is performed (up to 20). A woman was considered to have a vaginal birth by the absence of a code indicating a caesarean birth (see caesarean birth for more details). A birth was coded as having received an epidural if there was an intervention coded as 5.MD** (using the Canadaian Classification of Health Interventions (CCI) coding system) with the presence of an epidural based on the associated anesthesia technique (3 Epidural). If any other anesthesia was indicated, then the birth was coded as not having received an epidural. All home births were coded as not having received an epidural.