Background: Early recognition and prompt intervention for overt postpartum urinary retention (PUR) takes on a critical significance when a woman chooses labor epidural analgesia for pain relief. However, there have been rare fewer reports on the incidence and factors influencing overt PUR in women after vaginal delivery with labor epidural analgesia in China. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the incidence and factors correlated with overt urinary retention in postpartum women undergoing vaginal delivery with labor epidural analgesia.
Methods: In total, 462 Chinese postpartum women with labor epidural analgesia and vaginal delivery were recruited in one tertiary hospital in Beijing from Dec. 2020 to Nov. 2021. Factors associated with overt PUR for these women were identified through multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Results: The incidence of overt PUR was obtained as 10.2% among these women after vaginal delivery with labor epidural analgesia. As indicated by the result of univariate analysis, forceps-assisted delivery, lateral episiotomy, perineal pain, and fluid administration in the delivery room were correlated with PUR. The result of the multivariate logistic regression suggested that forceps-assisted delivery (odds ratio [OR]=2.46, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14– 5.32, P =0.022), lateral episiotomy (OR=4.55, 95% CI: 1.91– 10.80, P =0.001), and perineal pain (OR=4.23, 95% CI: 2.05– 8.73, P < 0.001) were factors affecting overt PUR for these women.
Conclusion: Postpartum women undergoing vaginal delivery with labor epidural analgesia showed a high incidence of overt PUR, and health-care providers should pay more attention to their postpartum urination status in clinical practice. Effective and timely intervention is strongly recommended to reduce the occurrence of overt PUR for these kinds of postpartum women undergoing vaginal delivery with labor epidural analgesia, such as ones experienced forceps-assisted delivery, lateral episiotomy, and more severe perineal pain.
Keywords: labor epidural analgesia, vaginal delivery, postpartum urinary retention, incidence, risk factors