Consentement éclairé en obstétrique : peut-on tout dire ?

Obtaining informed consent is part of a shared decision process between physician and parturient. The ability of a pregnant woman to take a decision concerning her own care management is preserved most of the time, even during labour. The way information is provided and its content need to be adapted to patient' settings. Physicians need to advise parturients about the most frequent complication and also about the risk of technical failure. Parturients must also be informed about rare but severe complications such as neurological complications. When patients' participation to clinical studies is requested, it is mandatory that standard of care be applied whatever the patients' decision and whatever the study design including comparison of epidural analgesia with other analgesic techniques.