Epidural in Induction - Was I a big wuss?

[Sassles]

I'm wondering what the ratio is of how many women have an epidural during the synotycin drip contractions to those who went on to give birth without one?

I was on the drip for 5 hours when I then took the epidural. I was v painful and contractions were every minute from the get go. I think I could have lasted a bit longer, but they said it would take a while to put epidural in and I knew it would be too late and I knew I couldn't last much longer.

Just wondering what the contractions compare to normal contractions (if anyone has experience of both) and if you had the drip, did you have an epidural?

Sassles, you know you aren't a wuss, childbirth hurts and you don't get a big medal for doing it without pain relief.

Hope you find a way to come to terms with your birth experience, there is some useful birth stories, resources and information here

And enjoy your LO

After a longish stay in hospital with my 4th I knew I would have to be induced and stipulated clearly that the drip part of the induction could only commence when the epidural was in place.

I completely agree with firawla

It worked wonderfully with a stress free end to a rather stressfull pregnancy.

Before they'd even set the drip up, the mws were telling me I'd need an epidural - from what I understand, augmented contractions are generally considered to be more painful than natural ones iyswim. I held off on the epidural for quite a few hours, but there's no way I'd have got through the whole labour without one. In the end I needed an emcs anyway.

In December I had a spontaneous labour, and IME I would agree that the induced contractions were far worse than the natural ones. You definitely weren't a wuss! Having said that, if I hadn't been so far along when we got to the hospital, I was all ready to request another epidural !

I've had three labours - #1, G&A, spontaneous; #2, G&A, pethidine, spontaneous; #3, induced, G&A. Was desperate for an epidural as he was back to back. I honestly believe it was that which made it excruciating rather than the induction.

But why are you feeling like a wimp? It's irrelevant really. You felt you needed it therefore you did need it therefore the pain was bad enough to need it. I wish people would stop beating themselves up about pain relief.

It's almost as bad as that MNer who started that thread a few weeks ago about birthing a back to back just on G&A and coming over all smug about it! We all feel things differently and in 2011 there is no need to suffer more pain than you want to.

First time I had TENS then pethedine(2 lots) but had drip to speed things up due to hind water leak for several days, drip made things more painful so I had an epidural. 2nd time, hind water leak again, gas and air but contractions getting nowhere so I asked for the epi before I had the drip. 2nd epidural was great as I had the lowest dose possible, so it took the edge off the pain but I could still feel the cotractions and knew when I went into transistion and needed to push. Pain relief is there for a reason, you shouldn't feel a wuss for using it, everyone is different as is every birth.

I chose not to have an epidural when induced and at no point did I feel the need to have one.

That doesn't make me any better than someone who did have an epidural though, I know I have a pretty high pain threshold thankfully.

Not induced but had the drip for slow progress with DS. They decided to break my waters at the same time. Epidural most definitely required- I actually passed out from the pain at one point prior to the epidural.

DD was a very rapid labour that resulted in an unplanned home birth. Despite this the contractions were nowhere near as painful- to the extent that I didn't realise I was in established labour until I actually started pushing.

If I had to have the drip again I would insist on epidural first. But I'm hoping for a repeat of DD's birth (but with a midwife there )