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Introduction: We undertook this study to compare the analgesic efficacy of 0.1% bupivacaine and 0.1% ropivacaine with fentanyl using patient controlled epidural analgesia. Materials and methods: 60 parturients of ⩾ 36 weeks of gestation with cephalic presentation in spontaneous labour with cervical dilatation ⩽ 5cms and baseline pain score of ⩽ 30 on visual analogue scale (VAS), were enrolled in the study. Group I received 10 ml bolus of 0.1% bupivacaine with fentanyl 2μg/ml while Group II received 10 ml bolus of 0.1% ropivacaine with fentanyl 2μg/ml followed by patient controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) using PCA pump. The primary outcome measured was analgesic efficacy using VAS. Results: VAS scores during first and second hour were found to be significantly lower in Group 1 as compared to Group 2 (Figure 1) with a significant difference from their respective baselines. Group II showed a statistically higher total drug consumption and number of boluses used (62.33 ± 26.6 vs 48.47 ± 16.7 and1.40 ± 0.8 vs 2.00 ± 0.8 respectively) as compared to group I (Table 2) (Figure 3). The motor block showed a statistically significant difference at 4th, 5th and 6th hours between the two groups (Figure 4). Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that 0.1% ropivacaine or 0.1% bupivacaine with fentanyl 2μg/ml used during labour analgesia by PCEA were equally effective for controlling the labour pain with more total drug consumption and less motor blockade associated with 0.1% ropivacaine as compared to 0.1% bupivacaine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]