Advantages

The advantages are:

• it is very effective, although there is a 5% failure rate
• it provides enough analgesia for an instrumental delivery, and can be used for operative delivery
• it is beneficial for the compromised fetus, eg in a breech delivery
• it has a good safety record
• longterm backache is no more common after epidural anaesthesia than after other forms of anaesthesia (1)

Reference:

• 1) Randomised study of long term outcome after epidural versus non-epidural analgesia during labour. (2002). Howell, CJ, Dean, T, Lucking, L, et al. BMJ, 325, 357-9.