Secondary outcome assessments
pain
ADVERSE EFFECTS, CONTRACTIONS
Secondary outcomes included the following: VAS pain score, Ramsay Sedation Score (RSS), FHR and intensity of uterine contractions (IUCs) during the first 60 min after epidural block (T0: baseline, T1: 5 min after block, T2: 10 min after block, T3: 15 min after block, T4: 30 min after block, T5: 60 min after block). Consumption of analgesic drugs in the PIEB pump, PCEA boluses, delivery mode, duration of labor, neonatal Apgar scores, maternal satisfaction and adverse effects were assessed within two hours of delivery. The efficacy of epidural analgesia was assessed using the visual analogue scale. The intensity of uterine contractions and fetal heart rate were monitored and recorded using an external tocodynamometry (TOCO) system (SRF618B5, Sunary Company, Guangdong, China) [