Epidurals for labour pain are only administered in delivery suites of public and private hospitals. They are not available for women labouring in birth centres or at home. Some maternity hospitals have wards with the name 'birth centre' that offer epidurals without being transferred to the delivery suite. By true definition these wards are not birth centres. You may wish to read more about birthplace choices in
Class B.
Epidurals are not available (or their availability is restricted), in some smaller Australian delivery suites. This is on par with maternity services in other western countries worldwide and is due to the cost and availability of the
anaesthetist's services.
Epidurals need to be inserted by an anaesthetist doctor, skilled in administering this type of pain relief. Anaesthetist doctors are usually employed by large public hospitals and most private hospitals to be available 24 hours a day. In these situations an epidural is usually obtainable by the woman on request, depending on how busy the anaesthetist is. In most cases this will be within minutes of the request, but if the anaesthetist needs to come in from home or is attending another woman or is in the operating theatre with a Caesarean birth, their services may be delayed.
In some smaller metropolitan and rural hospitals an anaesthetist might be on site during business hours and on call to come in at other times. Some restrict the service to only being available for medical reasons such as the woman having a
forceps or Caesarean birth (not for the woman requesting pain relief). You should check with your caregiver or hospital during the pregnancy about the anaesthetic services available at your birthplace.
A few small metropolitan and rural hospitals do not offer any anaesthetic services. This means that the woman would need to transfer to another hospital to obtain an epidural (usually only for medical reasons).