Why is the service so bad at times? It just seems astonishing to me that the basics aren't even in place everywhere.

I ended up in the unfortunate position of having to have an epidural, not requesting one. I had been pushing for 6 hours with no descent (attempted homebirth) and after a hospital transfer found that dd was presenting ear first. Ventouse, episiotomy and manual rotation didn't work so I had 2 choices. GA and em cs or wait for an anaesthetist and have spinal block and cs. I opted to wait. Took 2hrs. I have PTSD and think those hours of waiting with 2 minute long contractions every 30 seconds after 2 days of labour contributed massively to this. I understood that the anaesthetist was busy but it being the middle of the night, there was only him available and I wished desperately that they could have had another anaesthetist available.

Some hospitals don't have an anaesthetist on the premises overnight. A friend of mine (on her third child) desperately wanted an epidural, but they only had one anaesthetist between paediatrics and the whole maternity unit, and there was a paediatric emergency. She's filed an official complaint.

I'd never make 'Want epidural' a core part of a birth plan, simply because if your hospital is understaffed or underfunded, it really might not be your choice. (Women who have epidurals also need closer attention from midwives - when you've got one midwife split between two or three labouring women, she's not going to want to give ANY of them an epidural.)

I have the pregnancy and labour book by Dr Sears, who is a big natural birth guru from the USA. Even though he has been spearheading the movement away from a traditional US delivery with women strapped to a bed and refused food and drink, he strongly agrees with woman having epidurals if they need them. And he believes that epidurals can be a big factor in a "good" delivery in a lot of cases. My own experience was that after active labour and upright positioning didn't work and I was hysterical with pain, that an epidural was the only saving grace of my medicalised delivery.

So I think that there is a bit of a false dichotomy between having a "natural" delivery and having an epidural. I suppose that the split into MLU and CLU has just exaggerated it too.

Actually my epidural was not really connected to pain per se, but due to the fact that my body was making me push down on a not quite open cervix.

Having spent 2 hours on all fours with my head down and panting through/resisting the urge, an epidural was the only thing that could relieve that. If it happens again, I'd take the epidural again.

I agree it's not always the midwife's call and I also agree that these units are understaffed. If men had babies, or we complained more, this would all be a lot better I'm sure.

I think what this thread shows is how every hospital or unit is completely different? (as well as every experience).
FWIW my DH wasn't allowed to stay outside of visiting hours whilst i was being induced. Once I was in "active labour" he was allowed to stay - but he was firmly persuaded to go home about 2 hours after DD was born because it was outside of visiting hours...

I think anyone who believes that labour can be pain free is nuts. It's not helpful to peddle the myth that if you use hypno birthing, whale music etc then it'll somehow be a piece of cake. Labour really really really hurts like fuck!

HOWEVER... I do believe that various strategies such as breathing, hypnobirthing etc can HELP, and encourage a woman to go for a drug free birth if that's what she wants. Personally, I didn't want an epidural because of the associated risks, and there's no doubt that a good supportive midwife and using breathing techniques helped me achieve a natural birth. But imagining it won't hurt like fuck is absolutely setting yourself up to be badly disappointed!

Am I the only one who thinks it's downright pathetic that women even have to wait, sometimes for hours, whilst anaesthetist is in theatre?

Wot, there's only one?

Guess that's one way to slash costs.

I got told he was in theatre for four hours.

It's a good thing I'm a stubborn enough person to wait.

My cousin is a mw, and she says that often there will be 6 women screaming for epidurals but only enough staff to allow 2.