What does giving birth feel like in China? Chinese people usually compare the experience of labor to fighting their way through the doors of hell - Women in China usually suffered for hours, even for a couple of days, in labor, with little pain relief being offered, although pain-free labor has long been widely used in other countries. A pilot programme to make epidurals- a localized anesthetic more widely available across China has been launched by the health authorities at the end of 2018. How much applause for the idea has been won? How is it going? What challenges it still faces before being widely implemented?