Did you have a straightforward first birth without pain relief and an epidural in your second?

[rollerbaby]

I'm thinking ahead to my birth next march and wondering if I should go for an epidural to try and slow things down and get a bit more control. I had a natural birth the first time which was very fast and ended up with 2 ltr blood loss and 3rd degree tears. Terrified of the same happening. Given the size of my nearly 10lb baby apparently this is not surprising in a fast labour.

Torn between an epidural and leaving well alone. Would like to hear from mums having had a second with an epidural and whether it was fine or caused more complications than the first?

Meant to say that the consultant thinks that the epidural will stop me overpushing (won't necessarily slow it down) and will give me more control.

bump

I did it the other way round. Had dc1 and dc2 with epidurals, felt in control and no tearing.
Dc3 I had recently and no anaethetist available so couldn't have epidural. I felt less in control with the pushing stage and ended up with 2nd degree tear. I'm positive it wouldn't have happened had I had an epidural again.

Thanks Catsu. How long were your labours in comparision to each other? I'm really nervous that somehow there won;t be time this time - I was begging for one after transition but my delivery pushing bit was 10 minutes so no time and I'm convinced I overpushed and the speed/size was just too much. The blood loss left me at such a low ebb for months that I really don't want to go through that again! Were you able to move around with the epidurals, if you didn't top up too much?

Hi honeymoo, I had epidurals for both DC1 and DC2. With DC2 the birth was very quick but managed to get the epidural in - you need to make sure you can have an anaesthetist at hand as soon as you arrive in hospital. Basically - my waters broke 1.30pm, started getting contractions 2pm, they became strong very quickly so I called a taxi 2.30pm, it arrived around 3pm, was in hospital by 3.30pm. They checked me on arrival, I was 6cm dilated. Contractions were getting painful so I asked for an epidural quite soon after. By the time they got the monitors on me, got the anaesthetist, put the stuff in my back, the painkiller kicked in, etc., it was 4.45pm and it turned out I was 9.5cm dilated and baby's head pushing down already... So the epidural didn't slow anything down! But felt no pain through transition, started to push very soon after, and DC2 born at 5.30pm after 15 mins of pushing (3 contractions)! I was able to move around with the epidural, and given the speed of everything didn't need a top up. I could feel the contractions to push with them. So no interventions and not even a tiny tear during the birth. Felt so relaxed and recovered within a few days (much quicker than after DC1's birth).

I have to say pinkpeony that sounds bloody amazing and exactly how I would like it to happen. We never had that lovely moment holding the baby after delivery because I was too busy being rushed to theatre and I really really want this one to go well. Obviously. I am massively worried about the speed and like you say, I think I would go in alot earlier and not wait like I did before. I saw consultant yesterday and she suggested that we have epi on arrival and that it would be unlikely to slow the progress down but hopefully stop me pushing like before. It's orobably a bit early to worry too much but I think in my head I know what I want now.