A recent study published by the National Center of Health Statistics finds that women with a higher level of education are more likely than less educated women to receive epidural or spinal anesthesia during childbirth. The study showed that in the 27 states surveyed, 61 percent of all women who gave birth to a single infant by vaginal delivery received an epidural or spinal anesthesia.
Nearly 70 percent of women who had graduated from college received this type of anesthesia compared to 48.5 percent of women who did not finish high school. Women with a master’s or doctoral degree were twice as likely as women who had no education past the eighth grade to receive epidural/spinal anesthesia.