Epidural anesthesia during childbirth causes long-term back problems.

Is it true that Epidural anesthesia during childbirth causes long-term back problems?

No. Multiple sources, including a literature review and a clinical reference, state that epidural analgesia during labor does not increase the incidence of long-term back pain, and one clinic page calls long-term back problems from epidurals very rare. One case-control study found chronic back pain more common after an unintentional dural puncture, a complication of epidural catheter insertion rather than epidural anesthesia generally.

Verdict: REFUTED · 1 source for, 5 against · Last checked 3 Oct 2026

The private library was unavailable for some searches in this check. Missing library results are not evidence against the claim.

Lacombe, A., Downey, K., Ye, X. Y., & Carvalho, J. C. (2021). Long-term Complications of Unintentional Dural Puncture During Labor Epidural Analgesia: A Case-Control Study. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.18.21265155

Kodzoev, R. R. & Lyashenko, E. N. (2025). Delayed and long-term effects of epidural anesthesia in childbirth: A literature review. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.21518/ms2024-537

Randomised study of long term outcome after epidural versus non-epidural analgesia during labour - PMC Lock. (n.d.). pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7360.357

Backache, headache, and neurologic deficit after regional anesthesia. (2003). doi.org. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0889-8537(02)00031-7

Epidural: What It Is, Side Effects, Risks & Procedure. (n.d.). my.clevelandclinic.org. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21896-epidural

Epidural anesthesia during vaginal delivery. (2023). doi.org. https://doi.org/10.24911/ijmdc.51-1671558153