Epidural - positive and negatives please

[lucybrad]

Hi All

I am currently pg 30 weeks, and previously had twins by elcs.

I am getting worried about labour now, but have been assured I can have an epidural if wanted.

Now I was wondering, if an epidural takes away all the pain, why doesnt everyone have one? I take paracetamol for a headache so why not get rid of the pain of this? Can anyone give me real life experience of the good and the bad points please...

I felt very like the OP - so much so my birth plan was just one sentence along the lines of - "I don't really care what else happens but can I have an epidural please?".

I went in at 5cm and got one almost immediately, was pain free and clear headed (a main reason I wanted an epidural was so not to have gas and air or more drugged up feeling pain relief).

It was great, he popped out, no pain, no fuss and I was up and walking around 5-10mins afterwards (I had a mobile one).

I'd definitely recommend it. I just don't see the point of going through pain if I don't need to. Everyone is different though, but a thumbs up from here.

I didn't have one because I didn't need one.
I don't find labour painful and had homebirths with DS2 and DD anyway.

I intended a totally natural birth (ha!), but got induced and ended up begging for the drugs....Went from a howling, puking wreck at 4cm dilated to playing scrabble until 10cms dilated (with the epidural). However, it is a tad humiliating to be hoisted up over a bedpan when you want a pee!

I was surprised that I could still feel the contractions to push with an epidural, yet couldn't feel the pain...Until it wore off, just as he was crowning....

The epidural I had didn't work. It just numbed one leg.

And it made me through up with E-V-E-R-Y contraction.

I was worried that if I went in thinking I would have an epidural if the pain got too bad, than I would be really sunk if for any reason it didn't work ( and sometimes they don't) or I couldn't get one. It was really important to me that I felt I could cope with the pain without help, so I just discounted an epidural as an option from the beginning. I guess I felt I could cope with the pain better if I had made the choice to feel it, if you see what I mean?

Anyway, in the event, I didn't have the epidural and I didn't need it, although it was very painful.

Also, and this is purely anecdotal, everyone I know who had an epidural did end up with either forcep, ventouse or a cs.

One thing I would say, I made it clear to my midwives not to offer an epidural, and that was important - if they had I probably would have taken it, but I wasn't willing to ask. Which was empowering, in a way, and got me through it. I know that sounds cheesy!

OP - why don't you have another ELCS? I had my DD by ELCS - no reason, just didn't like the idea of pain - and it was great. If I have any more children I will do it again.

I had one for my first birth, and was grateful for it.

Good bits: It brought down my (startlingly high) BP
and I could rest a bit.

Bad bits: It gave me terrible shakes, I was out of it but still groaning with every contraction, and it put me inextricably into a situation where birth was done 'to me', not 'by me'.

Midwives ignored me from the time the epi went in until the end of their shift as they knew nothing much was going to happen for a while (labour slowed right down). I wasn't in agony, but I was still scared. But got no further support from them.

In the end I had to have syntocin as well, and DS ended up as a ventouse delivery, which I swear gave him a terrible headache, and he cried and cried and wouldn't feed for the whole of his first night of life. Not a great experience on a postnatal ward with nowhere else to go.

So basically, epidural was medically wonderful, but somehow a miserable experience.

Second birth was a home waterbirth with no other pain relief than TENS and warm water. And it hurt far less.

I don't know if it was just one of those things, a 'first birth' thing, or a fear thing that made DS's birth so hard, but I've come away with the idea that it's better to learn to be calm, to breath well, and to feel supported than to need to rely on drugs. For me, anyway .

Downsides of epidurals

• you have to lie or sit still while they stick a needle in your spine. This is OK if it doesn't take long (which is the most likely), but in my case it took a whole hour of two different doctors trying to get the rotten thing in while I progressed from 5cm to fully dilated without being able to move at all (I have a strange epidural cavity, apparently). I do not recommend going through transition while unable to move because two men are jabbing needles into your spine.
• you are attached to the epidural, plus normally to an IV (in case the epidural makes your blood pressure drop), plus quite often they'll hook you up to a monitor while you're there, so your mobility is often seriously compromised even in terms of shifting position on the bed
• means you have to stay in hospital longer
• sometimes they don't work (didn't for my mother, twice. After that she gave up on the idea for DC3).

And in second labour I was already in transition by the time I got to hospital, so even if I had wanted an epidural after my bad experience first time I couldn't have had one.

I am probably quite unusual in that I had a homebirth with dd1 and a hospital birth with dd2 (with epidural)
I LOVED the epidural and frankly don't know why I did not have it the first time.

My homebirth was lovely but the stitching with just g&a was just horrendous, much worse than the birth and not something I wanted to repeat.

You will hear positive and negative stories on everything to do with birth so my advice, see how you feel on the day.

I've had two. Can't fault them for taking away the pain. Wound up with two instrumental deliveries. The first was mid-cavity forceps, but she also had her hand up by her ear cupping her head. The second was ventouse, but he was also over 2lbs. heavier than either of his sisters and had cord wrapped round his neck. It also failed to bring down my blood pressure and I needed an additional drug to do that - two pushes of it, in fact.

'I think it is also important to remember that unendurable pain is not risk free - you can get flashbacks, nightmares not be able to bond with the baby etc. (There is a lot of research on this so it is not anecdotal).'

This. The anxiety I had from knowing the pain of every contraction to come was ratcheting up my blood pressure very worringly. As in, the bottom number creeped over 100. That is not good.

I didn't have one. The risk to breastfeeding was enough to put me off.

Hang on a second, sunshine, surely your experience was of an epidural that didn't actually work! Thus is wasn't actually an epidural. It is like someone asking "Would you like your broken leg put in plaster" and you responding "No, because last time you put the plaster on my arm." That isn't a reason for not asking for your leg to be put in a plaster cast or, in this case, another epidural (except obviously not with the same anaethetist)

I am not sure we can extrapolate from your experience how epidurals work. Although I accept that sometimes the anaethetist can stuff up but how common is that?

I loved my epidurals, they are like slipping into a hot bath. First one I had when 7cm because of high blood pressure, didn't ask was told.......it was lovely, could still feel my legs and after the agony of labour to be sat up in bed watching TV was bliss, and I pushed him out no probs. Second son emergency C Section and again just a nice warm feeling and all was well in the end. I am having a planned Section on December 10th due to Placenta Previa and i'm actually looking forward to my epidural ;)

Yeah, it's just like a paracetamol.

The kind of paracetamol that comes on the end of a long needle headed towards your spine, in the hands of a harried specialist anaesthetist, and needs you to be monitored and wired for the remainder of your headache.

They're a great invention, but I wou;dn't hurry to get it unless I absolutely needed it.

What are the risks to breastfeeding?
Had a quick google and could not find any proper research on that at all?

jemjabella, are you sure there is a risk tobreastfeeding? There was a study that showed a difference but loads of scientists said the study was useless because the two groups were different. The epidural group had 40% or so with c/s so it wasn't surprising that they found breastfeeding more tricky! There was another one later on that says it improves breastfeeding! I reckon they are both rubbish - I can't see any reason why having an epidural would make any difference at all to breastfeeding. They stick the needle in your back not your boobies:)

My epidural first time round was the best bit of the whole labour had had very long excruciating induction, was progressing very slowly and was exhausted. It was that or a section I think. After the epidural I had a nice little nap and sent dp home to feed the cat! Also meant I could have the forceps delivery that was suddenly required at the end without additional anaesthesia. But, after delivering, I was pretty out of it and immobilised and nearly fell on the floor off the bed, ds was quite sleepy too (but can't put that down to the epidural alone).

I was very happy 2nd time round to have a quick labour with just gas and air; I felt normal pretty much as soon as I'd delivered. But would have had one like a shot if it had been necessary (in fact I think I asked for it at one point, but as dd was almost emerging by then it was a bit late!) My take on them is that I think we're really lucky to have access to them if we need them.

in the hosital i used only some of the nurses were trained to work with epidurals. you therefore had to insist very loudly if you wanted one.

pain releaf was the thing that worried me most for my third and i had 'recommend epidural' written right across my notes by the head anestatist who'd i gone to see previously. the nurses still didn't want me to have one. had an emergency caesarean in the end so they had to give me one - it was fab.

I ended up having one with DS after 13 hours of no-pain-relief labour, epidural and ventouse in rapid succession. DD bron in France, epidurals are routine if your labour's not too quick, DD born easily, quickly, I could feel contractions etc, I no worries. i read the paper...
It's a big physical event, it's risky, whatever you do.

I had epidural, as it was obvious that something was not right from the off. While on epidural I did not feel any pain, but could feel the contractions sooner than the machine showed it, so could push very well. I needed intervention in the end (not because of the epidural), and that was when it was fantastic. I will forever be grateful for it.

It is a bit tricky to stay still for minutes when you get the epidural and you have contractions though.

If you want one, you also need to bear in mind that it takes 20 minutes to work, several minutes to prepare you and of course, the doctors might be helping another lady in labour, so you might have to wait.

A word of caution, the doctor told me before the ventouse, that despite the epidural I might feel the actual birth / episiotomy. But I did not.

The next day the lovely anaesthetist came and filled out a questionnaire about the quality of care I received. Was very impressed.

I did not have to stay in longer because of the epidural, but for other reasons.

And I also threw up both during and after labour. But then I did it before I had an epidural and throughout the 9 months.

I also breastfed right after birth.

I had 2 friends who both had epidurals for their babies. One of them had them for both her girls and both labours ended up very long and protracted (the first was over 40 hours labour, the second was over 30 hours long) and yes, "cascade of intervention" with forceps for one and ventouse for the other. The other friend also had a problematic delivery as her oldest daughter ended up being delivered by forceps and the procedure hurted her neck and arm, till this day she still has problems moving her right arm.

It could be hard to say for sure whether having an epidural caused all of those problems at labour for my friends, but they were otherwise healthy young women with no prior health problems and trouble-free pregnancies throughout. One of them went on to have another child (the one whose oldest daughter had her right arm permanently affected by the forceps procedure at birth) and her request to have an elective caesarean was granted by her doctor once they looked at the problems with her first birth.

However, I also have 2 other friends, both of whom had their babies vaginally with epidural and had no problems whatsoever. One of them thought the epidural was fantastic, and both her babies came out with 2 or 3 pushes, and normal length of labour, no protracted labour nothing. She would recommend epidurals!

Giving birth is risky in itself, and whatever you choose to do during labour, epidural or not, I think there are no hard and fast answers to what the outcomes may be. Its different for different people. I personally gave birth to all 3 of my children at home without epidurals and would never consider using one.

I had a very bad experience of an epidural in many ways, and will do everything to avoid one if I give birth again (which I hope to!).

I was given an epidural much too late, had continuous contractions whilst it was going in, consequently something went wrong and it fell out whilst I was pushing. On the plus side I could feel to push and didn't have any further intervention. On the downside I got the dreaded spinal headache and it was absolute hell - lasted for 5 days post birth, couldn't lift my head off the pillow - with a newborn! I was lucky as it usually lasts 2 weeks. It happens to 1 in 100 women apparently.

It really affected my experience of taking DS home and although all is well now it still makes me sad to think of it 1 year on.

However, I will say that it did take away the agony, which was AMAZING at the time (I had a very fast fierce induced labour). I actually told the anaesthetist that he was a 'wonderful man'.

I loved my epidural, won't bore you with the details but:

Negatives: shaking, vomiting, forceps but i did not find any of these negatives traumatic and it was worth it to have an pain free labour.

Positives: no pain, have fond memories of labour, was able to chat, laugh and joke with DH, was not at all exhausted once he was born so could spend time bonding straight away.

To sum up i would definitely have another one, despite the interventions i have very fond memories of the birth and am not at all traumatised unlike my friend who got stuck in a queue and didn't get one and now swears she will never give birth again.

I also breast fed within an hour of giving birth and feeding him has always been very succesful.