Epidural - how pain free was your labour?

[Ashtower]

I have tokophobia (fear of labour). Stems from the fact my mother almost died giving birth to my sister. I am considering ttc this year but recognise I have issues to overcome.

AIBU to ask if you had an epidural and how pain-free your labour was (if you feel comfortable sharing of course)

My cousin says hers was completely pain-free - sounds too good to be true.

My first labour I had an epidural and basically every pain relief under the sun. The only thing that stopped the pain was a spinal.

Second labour I shed hypnobirthing and had a bit of gas and air for the pushing stage. The head was painful, the rest was fine.

I'm one of those strange women who didn't find labour or birth unbearably painful. I didn't request any pain relief because the thought never entered my head. Just trying to balance the stories here, I enjoyed giving birth both times and would do it again in a heartbeat (the first sleep deprived year however, or the pregnancy, perhaps not!)

I don't have a fear of birth though. In your position it might help to do a hypnobirthing course (not as woo woo as it sounds) or it may be that you're better off with a section because that removes a lot of the unknown aspects of labour although obviously comes with its own risks.

I had a back to back labour the first time around so the contractions were pretty much constant for a solid 12 hours before I found myself begging for an epidural. It was wonderful for the first maybe six hours before it started wearing off, they couldn’t get it to work again for some reason...

I had an epidural with my 3rd child it was amazing no pain and could still feel a slight tightening of contractions. I should have had one with my first 2 births. Hope you find a good anaesthetist😊

I had an epidural with my first. I didn't feel much at all during labour, to the point where they threatened to turn the epidural off because I couldn't feel any contractions and didn't know when to push. I was too late for an epidural with my daughter - she was in a bit of a hurry, came out in 45 mins start to finish! I will say that although the epidural made the labour itself pain free, I am convinced it made the labour longer, and recovery afterwards took a lot longer with the epidural than without.

That said - if I were to do it again, which I won't, I would 100% ask for an epidural.

I begged for an epidural during labour with DS1 but never got it, I was devastated after being told several times the anaesthetist was 'on their way', only then to be told 'sorry, they got called into an emergency'.

With DS2 I just didn't ask as I didn't want to hope and then not get it.

Honestly I'm your situation unless they can guarantee an epidural i would ask for a planned ELCS.

I literally couldn’t feel a thing when I had an epidural. I had forceps, that suction thing, episiotomy, stitches, the works, and didn’t feel a thing. Literally nothing. It was great. But I don’t like needles so the next time I tried without having the epidural and that was fine too. Shit for a little bit but that part was over quickly and 99.9% of it was me thinking ‘is this it?’ Honestly I don’t think childbirth is as bad as everyone makes out.

I was also which is meant to be more painful but really wasn’t bad at all in my experience 🤷‍♀️

"Honestly I don’t think childbirth is as bad as everyone makes out."

Fuck off

Just because your experience was fine doesn't mean the women who are traumatised by their experiences are making a fuss over nothing

Why do people say this shit

Mine only worked on one side so I felt every contraction on that bloody drip. I had been in labour nearly a week by then and about 6 hours later got a csection.
The pain was quite manageable until I got to the so exhausted I couldn't stand up point.
If you go into labour naturally and it progresses at the 1cm per hour that its supposed to and you can keep upright you might be ok without.
If you start going overdue and they discuss an induction just ask for a c section I wish I did.
Find out how many anaesthetists there are in the hospital. Where I gave birth one covers the whole hospital out of hours so if there is an emergency in A&E no one in maternity is getting an epidural. During the day there are more.

Epidural was brilliant. Went from groaning with pain to watching Eastenders. Fab. Giving birth contractions felt like mild period pain. Would recommend it to anyone.

I had an epidural for my last birth. It was fantastic.
Apart from the urge to push, I never felt a thing.
I'd recommend it to anyone. Why be in pain when you don't have to be.
Sorry to read that it didn't work for some of you. ☹️

Epidurals don't work effectively if baby is back to back. Mine didn't, and they re-sited it and it was still dodgy. Then it fell out. I didn't know she was back to back until she was delivered via EMCS. It worked to an extent but I wasn't pain free.

Apparently some people just don't respond well. The anaesthetist told me something like 1 in 6 or 1 in 8 people an epidural doesn't work for before the procedure. I was horrified!

I went from being in the most pain I’d ever known to having this feeling like warm water being poured down my lower half and then feeling nothing. My birth partner couldn’t believe the change so quickly, still ended up having an emergency csection but my god, the best part of that labour was the epidural

My experience was exactly this!

No pain with an epidural! ☺ I have had three babies. 1st one I had some sort of injection, maybe demerol? the nurse just told me it would help me sleep between contractions so I would be strong to birth. I was 18, and trusted they knew best. In the delivery room I had what they called a spinal, they only gave it last 5 minutes, for the episiotomy and actual birth.

Second, same demerol shot, but no spinal, no episiotomy, (I did tear) baby came quickly and nurse delivered it. Was my best labour & birth.

Third baby I had an epidural and felt no pain at all. Chatted on the room phone to my friend at one point. It was harder to push as I was numb, my other babies practically needed no pushes, 5 for baby one, 3 pushes for baby 2, almost an hour in delivery room with baby 3, due to having a booster of the epidural. The doctor had decided to do a cs if baby not born within the hour due to me bleeding (umbilical cord tearing off placenta) and baby's heart began to have irregularities, however baby came in time.

The 1st episiotomy hurt the most healing. The tear was not too bad and healed with much less discomfort. Third not so bad either.
I was with a relative when she gave birth and she asked for an epidural towards the end and recieved it, then pushed for ages. I heard the doctor saying to another staff member that she would have had the baby by now, if they gave the epidural earlier.(she had been trying for 30 minutes) Her baby was beautiful and perfect and relative was fine too.
I guess try to not wait too long to have the epidural, have it in a signed birth plan, and if still feeling too anxious, find a doctor who will deliver via c section.

It's worth it to have a plan!

Mine didn't work.

This is not the norm though!!

Mine paralysed me from the hips down but didn’t affect the pain from contractions so it still hurt like a bitch but slowed down delivery. When I needed a ventouse delivery very quickly at the end because the baby was distressed it didn’t hurt at all. I was left filthy dirty and covered in blood in the same bed till lunchtime the next day when I could walk again and had to be catheterised over night so over all bit particularly positive. I am very grateful though that they managed with a ventouse, I can’t imagine how painful it would have been with a caesarean. No one explained anything to me at the time so for a long time I just though that’s was how epidurals worked.

I couldn't feel a thing. So much so that I struggled to push because I was so numb. On my birth plan with my second I had wrote I would like to try without pain relief but I knew deep down I would cave. Well when it came to it I wasn't allowed any pain relief except gas and air and I begged and cried and screamed for an epidural.

I had been in labour for 16 hours with no pain relief (I was 3cm dilated the whole time and was told they wouldn’t administer pain relief, even gas and air, until I got to 4cm!). I was in absolute agony, and didn’t know what to do with myself. Finally they agreed I wasn’t going to dilate anymore myself so wanted to start me on the drip and a lovely midwife came and spoke to me and advocated for me to get the epidural before they started the drip. The relief was amazing, I went from literally not being able to talk from pain to being able to have a nice chat with the midwife, had a little nap, and rang my Mum!

It did wear off strangely for me and I ended up numb on only one side and had to have the anaesthetist come and ‘top me up’ and fix it but he was great. When it came to physically birthing DD, I had no pain at all, I didn’t feel the crowning everyone speaks off and was pain free in that area despite a doctor manually turning the baby while she was still inside, an episiotomy and ventouse so I was very relieved to have had it!

Before labour I was adamant I didn’t want an epidural but I’d almost certainly ask for one next time!