Fifteen Dutch hospitals are not in a position to guarantee pregnant women an epidural to relieve pain outside normal working hours, despite government guidelines introduced two year ago, the AD reports on Thursday.

In the 15 hospitals, which are not named, epidurals are only offered between 09.00 and 17.00, the paper says. Most hospital births happen at night.
The information is included in the newspaper’s Top 100 hospital ranking which will be published this weekend.