In a study of vaginal births in New York State hospitals, labor neuraxial analgesia -- having an epidural or combined spinal and epidural -- was associated with a decreased risk of severe maternal morbidity. Deliveries with a neuraxial analgesic also lessened the risk of post-partum hemorrhaging, the leading cause of preventable severe maternal morbidity. The researchers found that a decreased risk of severe maternal morbidity associated with neuraxial analgesia was similar between non-Hispanic White women and racial and ethnic minority women.