Presence of a Companion During Performance of Neuraxial Labor Analgesia

Parturients who have been admitted to the Labor and Delivery ward at Prentice Women's Hospital will be approached by a member of the anesthesia team prior to the placement of a labor epidural catheter. They will be asked if they are considering neuraxial labor analgesia, and if they are they will be screened using the inclusion and exclusion criteria to determine study eligibility. Once they have been evaluated and found to be appropriate for the study, they will be invited to participate.

Participants will be asked to fill out the STAI questionnaire to assess the level of anxiety prior to placement of the labor epidural catheter, and before knowing their group assignment. They will then complete the pre procedure questionnaire. This questionnaire asks about expectations she has for the labor epidural procedure. They will then be given the page of the Newest Vital Signs questionnaire with the Nutrition Facts, and be asked the 6 questions by the recruiter. Then they will be handed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale form with 13 statements, and asked to fill it out as directed in the instructions at the top. They will then be asked who their primary support person is. A form will be handed to that person to confidentially record if he/she would prefer to be present for the procedure. This form will be collected from the companion, and without the parturient aware of the support person's response, she will be asked for her preference with regard to the presence of a companion in the room, which will be recorded on this form as well. Finally, she will be asked which ethnicity she most relates to, also to be recorded on this form.

After all these data have been collected, the parturient will be randomized as to whether her companion will be allowed in the room or will be asked to leave. This will not be communicated to the parturient until the time of the labor epidural catheter placement. When she requests the neuraxial labor analgesia, the provider placing the labor epidural catheter will be made aware of which group she has been randomized to, and will either ask the companion to leave for placement, or provide the support person a non-mobile chair to sit on in front of the parturient for placement of the labor epidural. The companion will be asked to remain in the chair. He/she will be asked to focus on the parturient. It will be emphasized that he/she must remain seated and will not be allowed to observe the procedure being performed. This is to prevent loss of consciousness in the support person, which has been documented in the literature (Devore and Asrani, 1978; Crosby and Halpern, 1989). One violation will result in a warning, and after a second the companion will be escorted out of the room and the participant will be removed from the study.

The provider will place the labor epidural catheter in the regular fashion, as is common practice at Prentice Women's Hospital. After preparation and draping of the skin in the sitting position, infiltration with Lidocaine 1% will be conducted at L3-L4 or L4-L5. A 17g Tuohy needle will be advanced into the epidural space, using a loss of resistance with either saline or air, depending on the provider's preference. After the epidural space has been located, a 27g pencil-tip spinal needle will be placed through the Tuohy, into the intrathecal space, and an intrathecal dose of medication will be administered. The exact dose to be injected will be left up to the discretion of the provider, who will determine the appropriate dose based on the patient's situation at that time. After the intrathecal dose is administered, the spinal needle will be removed and a 19g epidural catheter will be placed through the Tuohy into the epidural space. It will be secured at the skin with a sterile dressing and tape, leaving 5cm of the catheter in the epidural space. The patient will then be placed in a lateral position.

After the completion of the neuraxial procedure, the study participant will then be asked to fill out the STAI questionnaire again. Additionally, she will be asked to record her perception of pain during the placement of the labor epidural catheter, using a VAS (Visual Analogue Scale) from 0-100mm. At that point the parturient's participation in the study will be complete.