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Childbirth

Did your epidural work well?

118 replies

JellyNump · 14/05/2006 16:28

I have had 2 epidurals and both times they got rid of the pain of the contractions but the pain of the baby coming out (stretching etc) it seemed to do nothng for? Is this 'normal'? It may just be me?

OP posts:

Report

JoolsToo · 14/05/2006 16:39

1st one didn't feel a thing!

2nd one wasn't completely numbed and found the delivery quite a nice feeling

NotAnOtter · 14/05/2006 16:41

Four births without pain relief

Number 5 an epidural ...believe me it works!

GDG · 14/05/2006 16:41

Is it not because by the time you come to push it's wearing off and they don't like to top up too near delivery as it can hinder effective pushing?

I couldn't feel a thing with ds1 and although that sounds great, I don't think it was the best thing as I needed ventouse, legs in stirrups etc. With ds2 and ds3 I had no pain relief bar a couple of puffs of air right at the end and it was much easier and needed no help.

toesh · 14/05/2006 16:42

i couldn't feel a thing - which made it all a bit strange really. ie: are you sure i just gave birth to that baby????

flibertygibbet · 14/05/2006 16:43

It's not just you! I had an epidural and I couldn't feel contractions until they pushed the baby down to a certain point and then i felt EVERYTHING .

NotAnOtter · 14/05/2006 16:45

I suppose having done it both ways i knew how to push and how hard etc and into bum and all that so maybe that helped - i did not like the feeling of everything stretching and felt like tearing but compared to the tortuous sting of crowning it was ecstacy!

JellyNump · 14/05/2006 16:52

I know with the 2nd one the midwife left to get the top up for the epidural but was too late as dd was ready to come out. With the first, it just hurt, didn't seem to wear off, I could feel pressure when contracting but when ds came out, it was still painful.

OP posts:

louise35 · 14/05/2006 17:20

Mine didn't take the pain away at all but it did ease it. Whether its supposed to numb your bottom half completely I don't know but it certainly didn't do it for me. I felt everything when I was at the pushing stage but thats the way I wanted it though, I felt more in control. What I didn't like though was the bossy anaesthetist barging in just before I was having my stitches and topping up the epidural against my wishes and saying that it would numb everything ready for my stitches. I really wasn't happy about it and kept arguing that I was NOT numb down there after he'd done it but the doctor doing the stitches ignored me and commenced stitching me up - OUCH - I nearly flew of the table. She then conceded that the epidural had not worked in my case and agreed to put some local aneasthetic in. I've come to the conclusion that my epidural might not have been done right in the first place as the only thing that went numb was my legs although it did slightly ease the pain during the transition stage and got me through that. I don't know if this has happened to anyone else.

JellyNump · 14/05/2006 17:25

I've not experienced stitches - ouch!!!

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NotAnOtter · 14/05/2006 17:28

I found the whole epidural experience completely and utterly surreal.
I just could not believe that i was going to get my baby at the end of it..after the initial spinal i would have been happy tbh i was still in agony but not pain that nubs your mind and puts you into an altered state of consciousness which is my normal labour experience.....why oh why do i keep doing it?

TuttiFrutti · 14/05/2006 17:34

I never got to the pushing stage as I had an emergency C-section at the end, but I thought the epidural was brilliant for taking away the pain of the contractions! Pre-epidural, I was hanging onto the door frame screaming and would gladly have paid someone to kill me. Post-epidural, I was chatting happily to dh and reading Heat magazine. If I ever went through vaginal birth again, my biggest fear would be not getting the epidural.

neena28 · 14/05/2006 17:37

Mine had no effect whatsoever. Didn't have one with ds, but did with dd, even though both were spine to spine.

Only effect was a tingling big toe! Was told that there is a tiny minority that it doesn't work on even if sited correctly. I was asked to be a in a test group but felt with an infection afterwards that I'd had enough!

JellyNump · 14/05/2006 17:38

I'm petrified of needles but I was more scared of the pain and wasn't keen on the effects of gas and air, although my dh liked the gas and air!

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NotAnOtter · 14/05/2006 17:39

mine was amazing ( i know i keep wittering) but i was only numb from waist to fanny ( sorry !) all the rest had feeling and one small dose just did me fine ( it was only just over an hour) i fainted and was very very sick for hours but i put that down to shock

PanicPants · 14/05/2006 17:41

I had an epidural and it did take the edge off just about. I still found the pain excruciating though. I had 1 leg which was so numbed I couldn't move it, and the other leg not affected at all.
It did take away all the feelings of needing to push which resulted in me having an episiotmy and a ventuse birth.
I didn't feel the 'crowning' and that awful strtching bit at the end though so I guess that was something.

sparklemagic · 14/05/2006 17:55

Mine was a bit of a saga - first anaesthetist put it in, took it out, put it in, took it out, then finally put it in in the right place and left the room telling me he had left me a 'window' of pain so I could still feel when it came to pushing. Bastard. It basically made almost no difference, I still had to use the gas and air like my life depended on it (all this was occurring after about 42 hours of bloody agonising labour and no sleep!) so another anaesthetist was sent for who resited it again; this time it worked, took away ALL pain (god, I'd have given that man anything he wanted!) but I could still feel my legs.

Sorry Jelly can't advise on the baby coming out bit as my birth ended up emergency CS (under GA to top off all the drugs!)

My back was numb for weeks after they'd used me as a human pin cushion!

PrettyCandles · 14/05/2006 18:05

1st one the epidural only worked on one side so the pain on the other was greatly intensified. After several jigglings the anaesthetist advised me to lie on the un-affected side for the next top-up, as that might help distribute the drug better. Stupid horrid inflexible appalling midwife wouldn't let me do so in case she lost the trace on the monitor, and I wasn't sufficiently strong-willed to tell her to b*gger off and lose it for a few minutes. Pretty horrible all round, but I was able to push ds out by myself. Didn't feel the stretching pain, or the overwhelming urge to push, though.

2nd time I had no pr and felt everything, including the stretching pain, and I doubt I could have resisted the urge to push. Only then did I appreciate just how much pr even half an epidural gives!

DumbledoresGirl · 14/05/2006 18:10

My epidural succeeded only in numbing my right thigh - a total waste of time and unpleasantnes IMO but I reckon I know why it failed. I have a very low pain threshold and local anaesthetic doesn't normally work with me (well, not one dose anyway) so I was unable to lie still enough for the line to be put in to my spine. I had a very impatient rather tart young anaesthetist too, who told me to lie still while I could clearly feel the needle going in, so I guess I didn't manage it.

Anyway, I gave birth without any prain felief in the end and it was great - felt really natural - but then dd was the smallest by a long way of all my babies.

NotAnOtter · 14/05/2006 18:12

how many do you have dumbledore?

DumbledoresGirl · 14/05/2006 18:20

Four

foundintranslation · 14/05/2006 18:24

Mine worked a treat. I didn't feel a thing - contractions (felt as a tightening but not as pain), birth (ventouse), episiotomy, stitching. It did slow down the contractions, resulting in a syntocin drip, but not before it (bizarrely) speeded up dilation big time. I'd just got to 3cm with horrible pain, then epidural and was fully dilated wihin the hour.

PrettyCandles · 14/05/2006 21:39

I too had been stuck at 3cm for many hours, but was fully dilated within 2 or 3 hours of having the epidural. I put that down to the fact that I had got more and more tense as the time passed and I was struggling to cope with the contractions, fighting them really, but the epi gave me just enough pr for me to relax and let my body get on with it.

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morethan1 · 15/05/2006 13:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

satine · 15/05/2006 13:40

My epidural was fantastic - it turned the pain volume down from 11 to 0 but I could still feel each contraction and could feel dd moving down. I knew when it was time to push, and as soon as she was out, they turned the drip off and all feeling came back right away with no problems. It's made me think that if I ever have another baby, I'll pay that anaesthetist all the money he wants just to be on standby for me!!

Chloe55 · 15/05/2006 13:43

I ended up having an epi at 9cm dilated! I could feel a tightening sensation with contractions and I could feel pain when delivering but I did end up with a 3rd degree tear and I am convinced I would have seriously felt it if I hadn't ad the epidural. Was so annoyed I hadn't 'given in' at least 12 hours before hand because having that drug was such a feeling of calm after excruciating pain. My ds is 13wks old and a few wks ago I was thinking through what I might do next time and water birth keeps springing to mind but then I remind myself of what I said to dh as soon as I had that epidural - "Do not let me have any silly ideas of only trying with gas/air/water next time round!"

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