Women from black and Asian backgrounds are less likely than their white counterparts to receive an epidural while giving birth, research has revealed.
The findings, based on data collected from more than 2.7 million births in the UK, prompted experts to raise the alarm about an “ethnicity pain gap” that means people of colour are more likely to be deprived of adequate pain relief within medical settings.
It comes as Guardian analysis exposes evidence of racial inequalities in pain relief offered to people across all areas of healthcare – from children in A&E to palliative care offered to cancer patients.
Four medical royal colleges – the professional bodies for UK medical professions – called for better data collection on how patients from minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to have their pain dismissed by health providers.
The analysis on pain relief provided to women giving birth, published in the journal Anaesthesia, examined data collected over a 10-year period up until 2021.
It found that women from a Bangladeshi, Pakistani and black Caribbean background were less likely than white women to receive an epidural while having a vaginal birth. They were 24%, 15% and 8% less likely respectively.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on black maternal health, said the new findings left “little room for doubt that racialised assumptions are a key driver of unequal outcomes”.
“The disparities around pain relief identified in this report are shocking and indefensible, but sadly not surprising, given the way black people’s pain has historically been doubted, downplayed and dismissed,” she said. She added that the findings were “inseparable from the wider context of racism and racial tropes such as the ‘strong black woman’”.
Source: The Guardian, 2 July 2026
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