Analgesia protocol
In CMRC, obstetric analgesia is not considered a pain management standard during labour and is not used in any patient. In contrast, CUB incorporates obstetric analgesia as the standard of care for all patients; therefore, all participants with NLA were limited to CUB. Maternal vital signs and foetal tracing were monitored during analgesia (Philips IntelliVue MP20). All patients were evaluated by a consultant obstetrician every 3 h. At the patient’s request, a cervical examination was performed at the time of analgesia. We defined the active phase of the first stage of labour as cervical dilation ≥ 4 cm and cervical effacement ≥ 80%. The neuraxial blockade technique (epidural, spinal, or combined spinal-epidural) was selected according to the stage of labour. In patients with cervical dilation below 5 cm, the epidural technique was the preferred technique, while in those > 5 cm accompanied by moderate to severe pain, combined spinal-epidural analgesia was selected. The visual analogue scale for pain (VAS-P) was used for pain assessment. The entire protocol is described in