AP Photo

Women now spend nearly three hours longer in labour than they did 50 years ago, according to a new study.

Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health suggested the longer delivery times might be due to the fact that the use of epidural anesthesia is much more common today than it was a generation ago.

The study compared data from nearly 40,000 deliveries between 1959 and 1966 with data from nearly 100,000 deliveries between 2002 and 2008.