Communications during epidural catheter placement for labour analgesia

Evidence suggests that anaesthetists' communication can affect patient experience. There is a lack of guidance for anaesthetists as to the optimal verbal communication to use during insertion of epidurals on the labour ward. We recorded the verbal communication used by 14 anaesthetists during the siting of epidural catheters in women on the labour ward; a classification of the language used was subsequently devised. We found that commands and information statements were the most common types of communication used. Individual anaesthetists differed markedly in their use of positive and negative verbal language. This classification of verbal communication that we produced may be of value in future training and research of verbal communication used by anaesthetists on the labour ward.