I just got my Reader's Digest (May '96) today, and although I realize
that it is not a medical publication and it says nothing about breastfeeding
I thought that it might give us somewhere to look for documentation to back
up our fight to give patients the right to make an informed choice.  I quote:

     "Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
studied 869 women giving birth at a Dallas hospital.  Those who opted for
epidural analgesia - a procedure in which pain-killers are injected into the
space around the spinal cord - reported significantly less pain than those
who received their medication intravenously.  But the women in the epidural
group labored, on average, an extra 90 minutes;  they were also more likely
to have a forceps delivery, and twice as likely to need a Caesarean.  This
study adds to the mounting evidence suggesting that epidurals sometimes
change the course of a normal birth.
     "While epidural analgesia provides superior pain control, women need to
be aware that there are trade-offs," says lead author Dr. Susan Ramin,
associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology...."

FYI
Sharon Coe LVN IBCLC