Obese parturients have lower epidural local anaesthetic requirements for analgesia in labourâ€

We found obese parturients to have significantly decreased epidural bupivacaine analgesic requirements. A contributing factor to obese patients having more difficult labours may be that relatively larger doses of local anaesthetic are administered than actually required. It may be worth considering lowering the concentrations and doses with which we initiate analgesia in obese parturients.