RESEARCH ARTICLE Post natal use of analgesics: comparisons between conventional postnatal wards and a maternity hotel Hedvig Nordeng • Anne Eskild • Britt-Ingjerd Nesheim Received: 26 October 2009 / Accepted: 21 January 2010 / Published online: 10 February 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract Aim To investigate factors related to analgesic use after delivery, and especially whether rates of analgesic use were different in a midwife-managed maternity hotel as compared to conventional postnatal wards. Setting One maternity hotel and two conventional postnatal wards at Ulleva ˚l University Hospital in Oslo, Norway. Method Data were obtained from hospital records for 804 women with vaginal deliveries. Main outcome measure Postnatal anal- gesic use. Results Overall, approximately half the women used analgesics after vaginal delivery in both conventional postnatal wards and maternity hotel. The factors that were significantly associated with use of analgesics postnatally in multivariate analysis were multiparity, having a non- Western ethnicity, smoking in pregnancy, younger age, instrumental delivery, analgesic use during labour, mater- nal complications post partum, and duration of postnatal stay 4 days or more. Conclusion The use of analgesics is determined by socio-demographic and obstetric factors rather than the organisation of the ward. Keywords Analgesics Á Drug utilisation Á Maternity care Á Maternity hotel Á Norway Á Organisation postnatal ward Impact of findings on practice • Health care professionals should be attentive to the need for analgesics among women with vaginal deliv- ery, and acknowledge that there are both cultural and obstetric factors related to the woman’s need for pharmacological pain relief. • Organisational factors in itself should have little influence on the use of analgesics after birth. Introduction The majority of studies on drug use after delivery have been conducted in the 1980s or earlier. These studies report that approximately 80% of all women use drugs, mostly analgesics, during their stay in conventional postnatal wards (Table 1). As a response to the increasing use of drugs and medical interventions during childbirth, delivery wards in many parts of the world have undergone changes from conventional hospital wards to midwife-managed delivery wards and maternity hotels, driven by a wish to de-medicalize childbirth. Randomised studies have shown significant differences in intrapartum care and delivery between midwife-managed delivery wards and conven- tional delivery wards [6–9]. A meta-analysis including H. Nordeng (&) Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1068, Blindern, 0318 Oslo, Norway e-mail: h.m.e.nordeng@farmasi.uio.no H. Nordeng Á A. Eskild Department of Psychosomatics and Health Behavior, Division of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway A. Eskild Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Akershus University Hospital and University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway B.-I. Nesheim Department of Obstetrics, Ulleva ˚l University Hospital, Oslo, Norway 123 Pharm World Sci (2010) 32:206–211 DOI 10.1007/s11096-010-9371-3