Judy: I would hazard a guess about why so many women with inductions get epidurals in the U.S. I believe in many cases it has to do with the popularity of epidurals in the first place. Most moms have one anyway, so they often come in with the expectation of getting one. So you can imagine that once the contractions start coming fast and hard with the induction, a mother who would have a "low threshold" for getting an epidural in any case would likely opt for one pretty fast. There may be other factors of which I'm not aware, not being directly involved in OB at this time. Alicia. [log in to unmask]