Quantification of potential consequences associated with the use of epidural analgesia during labor could help to improve the safety and quality of labor and delivery care for parturient women.

We evaluate the association between epidural analgesia use during labor and neonatal infection in a large cohort of parturient women.

This propensity score–matched cohort study was conducted at a university-affiliated hospital in Shanghai, China.

Women at full-term pregnancy undergoing vaginal delivery between January 2013 and October 2018 were included in the study. Parturient women who were parous, experiencing premature delivery (gestational age <37 weeks), were pregnant with more than 1 fetus, or had experienced a stillbirth were excluded. Data were analyzed from October 2019 to June 2020.