In the past, very effective pain relief was achieved using very strong doses of local anaesthetic. the results were invariably dramatic because the patient would say 'All the pain has gone. In fact, I can hardly feel anything at all!'. Unfortunately, it has taken doctors a long time to realise that side effects, too, are dose related and that such blunderbuss epidurals are both unpopular and unnecessary. Perfectly satisfactory pain relief can be achieved using much weaker doses. After all, most women simply want their contractions made easier or more tolerable: they do not want sensation abolished altogether. This can be demonstrated by asking women to rate the intensity of pain experienced during the peak of a contraction and asking them whether it is acceptable to them, or not.In my experience, the majority of women find that a low dose epidural cocktail is perfectly adequate in relieving contraction pain. Pain charts can be used to measure the effect of epidural analgesia.