Has anyone else experienced failed epidurals?

[elm26]

Hi, I’m posting for traffic as I’m becoming increasingly anxious about this.

I gave birth to DD 2 years ago, it was an induction at 38 weeks due to IUGR and my placenta starting to fail.

I was in for week, having dilation rods, pessaries and sweeps then finally on day 6 I was dilated enough for them to break my waters, she was born 39 weeks on the dot weighting 5lb 15oz.

I had an epidural as recommended when they started the drip to medically induce me, it didn’t work so they re-sited it a few hours later, it still didn’t work.

DD was back to back and I gave birth with only gas and air and I was not coping with the pain, it was horrific.

I’m now almost 29 weeks with number 2 and have had a letter to meet with the anaesthetist at 32 weeks. Would this to be discuss my failed epidurals? If anyone has had one and it’s failed, have any of you gone on to have a successful epidural for another birth?

Thanks for reading x

My 3rd baby planned c section and I was in town with all 3 boys 8 days after youngest was born by myself. My oldest was 6 that day, middle one was 3 1/2 in the buggy and baby was in the sling and off we went. I think I was proving a point as I had been very unwell mentally whilst pregnant so I was showing them I could do stuff by myself. My only downside was it was August very warm and I had my own personal hot water bottle strapped to my chest lol.

For my planned C, I think it was a different kind of anaesthetic, not an epidural. The lady was amazing and as I was so anxious she kind of gave me a cocktail elixir of whatever that just mellowed me out! Came with a comedown though!

For my induction, the anaesthetist took half an hour to get the epidural needle in my spine. I then shook uncontrollably for one hour, he kind of quietly slunk out the door, because I guess there wasn't much more he could do! He did check up on me later. The epidural didnt work completely - but it worked enough.

Maybe everyone's different with how effective it is and how well it's been administered?

Sounds like my first one. Think you could be right about different ones for Caesarians. Had one for my fourth, natural delivery, and that worked well too. Only thing was they had to tell me when to push because I couldn't feel contractions which was a bit weird.

Had a planned c-section when I was 36 with my 3rd and recovered well, hardly a scar, no painkillers after second day. Think there is a difference between planned and emergency, and, of course, all surgeons and women are different. Bonus, my surgeon cut along an ugly scar left from an ectopic pregnancy and tidied it up for me. Now it's almost invisible.

I had 2 epidurals when I was in labour, both didn’t work. The midwife didn’t believe me when I said i could feel everything still. Took hours to get someone to come back and check me who agreed within seconds that it hadn’t worked. Did a 2nd one and that also didn’t work. I only had gas and air and baby was also big and back to back. Ended up with stitches.

i had a failed epidural with my firstborn, but they were trying to site it at 8cm dilated as no one believed I was far enough along.

it worked first time for number two, and I had a really lovely second birth.

Very good point. What would you recommend then?
The only alternative i can think of is potentially swinging completely the other way and attempting to go without an epidural, but of course how well alternative pain relief will work or be allowed will very much depend on how much intervention is required and on what type of labour it is ie back to back is meant to be really painful, they dont allow you to use the pool for loads of things, some labours are extremely long.
Mine are short but very intense.
Dreading doing it all over again in a few weeks, there really isn't an easy option is there!!!

God yes! Paralysed my legs but absolutely no effect on the pain! Baby had to be yanked out with forceps in the end. Went with just gas and air for my second.

That's why im afraid of epidurals. I gave birth to both of mine standing up, can't think of anything worse than being stuck on the bed and after all that the pain being the same anyway!!

Yes I did. It turns out I have a slight twist or bend in my spine at the place where they were trying to go in. They took multiple attempts, it was incredibly stressful and in the end they got the head anaesthetist to come and do it. Same thing happened to me second time around, because they didn’t listen to me and were incredibly confident that they would get it right, and what did I know as a layperson. There is a very easy answer which is an ultrasound of your spine to see it’s in the right place, which is what they did in the end. Ask in your meeting with the anaesthetist if they can scan you before the day of delivery so that you have a good chance of avoiding a repeat event.

My sister had a terrible experience with an epidural and baby was born under general.

I had a failed epidural with baby no 2, baby no 1 the epidural took great.

Mine only took one side both times so all the problems but non of the positives. I don't know why else you would be seeing the anesthetist.

I had an epidural with my first ds and it only worked on one side, so I also had an appointment with the anaesthesiologist when I was pregnant with my second. I was reassured that it would be fine second time round, they were thorough with their explanation and put it down with dd1 being born in another country.
I had placenta previa with my second so had to have a c-section and the spinal block also only worked on one side of my body- they managed to tilt the bed to get the anaesthesia to move around and worked in the end. I was told it was due to a slight curve of my spine which blocked it in certain places.

failed epidurals are not uncommon but hopefully it’ll be fine second time round for you

I was already 1cm with cervix in the right position when I was induced so laboured very quickly. They didn’t believe me when I said I had awful pain and put it down to “irritation from the pessary” until I demanded they check when I could barely breathe from pain, and turned out I was 7cm. They tried to talk me out of an epidural as I was too far along and gave me the morphine injection which did fuck all. When I got to about 8/9 I demanded the epidural as I was so worried about the pain of pushing. They reluctantly did it but it only worked on one side, so basically pointless and I had to wait for about an hour until I could start pushing as she was back to back. Ended up with an episiotomy as she was stuck, and bizarrely, the pushing didn’t hurt at all despite failed epidural..? I would like another baby in the future and I must admit I am scared of it not working again as getting to 7cm (and beyond technically as the injection didn’t do anything really) was awful.

My epidural failed, in that only one side was numb, the other side wasn't. They tried twice. I ended up having an emergency C-section and whatever they did then worked at least!

I haven't had a second child so can't help much there I'm afraid.

@Pinkpupsx its fucking pointless that morphine injection isn't it, really dont know why they bother offering it as it genuinely does fuck all.
The gas and air did help me alot though.

what I would recommend to women who've had epidurals that have failed is to talk to an anaesthetist (ideally in the antenatal period, but alternatively on admission to the labour/antenatal ward). As I said, having had a failed epidural in one labour doesn't necessarily mean it would happen again, but there is a higher than average chance that it might. There are lots of reasons they might not work perfectly/at all and some of those might be predicted to be a problem repeatedly, but others might not be. Spinals and epidurals are different techniques, and spinals are most commonly used for elective sections (as well as a lot of urgent sections too). Very often if an epidural hasn't worked then a spinal will still be fine, but it does depend a bit on why the epidural failed. If neither an epidural nor spinal is possible the GA is the only alternative for a trip to theatre. For many women, that is not a light decision as, aside from not being awake for the delivery, there are some additional risks with GA compared with spinal/epidural, but if neither spinal/epidural are possible then there aren't any alternatives. The 'proper' emergency scenario is very different to the elective/'quick-but-not-immediately-life-threatening' scenarios, and where speed is vital to having a good outcome for mother/baby then there are often clear benefits of a GA.

It's important for the OP, or any other woman in a similar position, to take advice from the people who have all the info about them.... why the epidural might have failed, any other medical problems that might need to be factored in, any other risks in this pregnancy or with this baby, what alternative pain relief is there, etc etc.

PP has mentioned using ultrasound to help with siting epidurals and that is occasionally helpful, but it also doesn't guarantee that an epidural will work (there's probably a good reason that although ultrasounding backs has been 'a thing' since I started anaesthetising nearly 20yrs ago it still isn't that widely used, whereas in other areas of anaesthetic practice USS has been widely adopted).

Lastly, while I remember, there is an increasingly common alternative pain relief technique that might be available to ask about for labour, and that is a remifentanil PCA. Again, not universally available and there are pros and cons (as with everything), but it may be worth exploring.

I don’t think mine with my 3rd worked fully, contractions were still hard to tolerate. While with my first it was suddenly so blissful and I could doze off between contractions (it was 5 in the morning by then). And he did a manual placenta extraction with my 3rd and that was , um, very difficult so no idea what the epidural was doing. It felt like he was staging a Tom and Jerry fight inside my uterus. At least I felt extremely confident there was no retained product.

I had epidurals with both.
DD1 - laboured in water with just gas and air for about 12 hours, then she became distressed and I needed an episiotomy and forceps so they did an epidural, I felt nothing.
DD2 - had to be induced and after a positive experience with DD1 I asked for epidural and it only worked on 1 side of my body, they tried resiting it but still no better. Needed another episiotomy and forceps, and I felt everything, then they stitched me and I felt everything, but they wouldn't believe me, it was horrific, DH reports I passed out at least 3 times from the pain.

I have no idea why 1st worked well and 2nd didn't. 1st should have been much harder as I was in late stage labour so struggled to stay still and they had to be quick between contractions. 2nd should have been easier as I was calm and relaxed. Same hospital, but different anaesthetists.

sounds like the first was probably a spinal injection rather than an epidural.

I did with my son, the midwife wasn't nice about it said its not like you have seen on the tv it wouldnt numb you completely. Then unexpectedly for them when they were doing hand over I crowned and pushed him out ao quickly they only got one glove on. They admitted afterwards that there is no way I would have been able to push him out so easy if it had worked. Majorly gaslit to be honest! The next child I had him 20 mins after being 6cms so didnt even get a chance to have an epidural. My final child I asked for an epidural, anaesthetist walked in the room at the exact time I crowned so I never got to have it. The failed epidural and the one i asked for it were the drip to induce, my middle one came by himself

Almost similar to you, although I ended up with a C Section. 5 days of inductions, waters broken when at about 2cm. Drip from midnight, epidural from 3am. First epidural they didnt tape it so it came out. Second was sited wrong and only worked on some of half my body at a time. No solution to this and was told to roll from one side to another every 30 minutes to allow the epidural to flood the opposite side, despite me still having a lot of feeling from the tops of my legs down (where the labour pains happened to be!) They messed about like this until midday (so 12 hours on the drip with almost no pain relief and me asking if they'd actually turned on the gas and air cos I was feeling everything) and they checked me. I'd gotten to 3cm in 12 hours on the drip. They asked me to go an extra hour to get to 4cm. I refused for a variety or reasons (zero pain relief, even if I got to 4cm I didn't know how I'd manage to get to 10cm, I'd been awake for 5 days and had nothing left to give)

They stopped the drip and the relief was instant. I have a high pain threshold but that drip should be used to torture people for information. I didn't know my own name. I'd have admitted to being the second gunman on the grassy knoll and knowing where Shergar was buried to have them stop it. Not one midwife or doctor who saw me curled up in a silent ball of agony for those 12 hours considered any other option than to proceed. Animals would be treated better.

It is one of the reasons we only have one child.

They said it was an epidural, but I was 3 days in labour by that point so who knows 🤷‍♀️

ah, fair enough. Little bit unusual to do an epidural if it was for a trip to theatre rather than for labour analgesia, but not completely unheard of...glad that it worked.