Did your epidural work well?

[JellyNump]

I have had 2 epidurals and both times they got rid of the pain of the contractions but the pain of the baby coming out (stretching etc) it seemed to do nothng for? Is this 'normal'? It may just be me?

[mogwai]

mine was wonderful. Turned the whole birth into a positive experience.

always makes me laugh when I hear people discussing their friends or relatives who have just had a baby "she did really well, no pain relief!!". Can never get my head round how that qualifies as having done "really well", like it's a value judgement. I always think "poor cow!!"

[tinymiaow]

I agree! How is it doing really well? Ha!

Also agree with house of gruffalo - am totally unable to believe that we are meant to suffer that amount of pain, plus no genius has come up with a sure-fire way of eliminating it!

All that 'earth mother' stuff, feeling at one with nature, nuturing that tiny life inside you... I felt none of that!

I felt like an alien was inhabiting my body and I wanted an epidural to decrease the abject terror I felt when thinking about labour!

Sorry to any 'earth mothers' out there! ...and I adore my kids ONCE THEY ARE OUT!

xxxx

[tinymiaow]

I agree! How is it doing really well? Ha!

Also agree with house of gruffalo - am totally unable to believe that we are meant to suffer that amount of pain, plus no genius has come up with a sure-fire way of eliminating it!

All that 'earth mother' stuff, feeling at one with nature, nuturing that tiny life inside you... I felt none of that!

I felt like an alien was inhabiting my body and I wanted an epidural to decrease the abject terror I felt when thinking about labour!

Sorry to any 'earth mothers' out there! ...and I adore my kids ONCE THEY ARE OUT!

xxxx

[louismummy]

mine was wonderful. First time gas and air, and meptid. second time epidural. it was the d.b. would highly recommmend it. labour was a breeze, i didn't over push ( no urge) much more controlled than last time i got a third degree tear.

[Coolmama]

Lovely, lovely, lovely - it was administered very well, so that I was actually able to walk from the delivery suite to theatre (for a "just in case ther might be a problem" sort of scenario) but managed to deliver fine - loved the drugman!!!

[jeanini]

i had an epidural with ds1,i was in so much pain contractions coming with no break, the midwife said you cant have one yet and im not checking your cervix as it can cause infection app if they do it too often. i demanded she checked me and i was 4cm dil so she got the anth. who argued with the mw because she hadnt given me the consent form to sign. i shouted stop arg and give me the bloody epid! it worked but i had really numb legs and also because they didnt put a catheter in at the time over 12 hrs after given birth i still couldnt do a wee. so they had to put a catherter in then. it was awful i had to have gas and air they couldnt see what they were doing as there was so much blood. next time im going to insist on having a cathertar put in at the time of the epid. has anyone else not had a cathertar put in at the same time?

[Amiable]

I loved my epidural! I was in hospital right from the start of my labour. When my waters broke there was loads of blood, so got rushed in by ambulance. As a result, the anaesthetist was one of the first people I met, as there was a strong possibility I might have to have a C-section. He was really great - explained everything really well to me, made it all seem like a walk in the park and really helped me stay calm about the whole situation. I started on gas and air after about two hours then they offered me the epidural about an hour later. I knew I wanted one but decided I could cope a bit longer on gas and air. then the next contraction hit!! The anaesthetist was in the room a few minutes later and did a brilliant job. I knew I was having contraction cos the monitor told me... but that was the only way I could tell!! I could move my legs, but the pain of the contractions just disappeared totally. The pain of pushing was a bit worse, but nothing at all like I had geared myself up for. I did need some help, and it was a ventouse birth, but I think that was more to do with the position of the baby's shoulders - the head kept appearing whenever I pushed, then disappearing again when I stopped!

Over all a very positive epidural experience for me.

[pen73]

1 DD, epidural after getting stuck many, many hours at only 3cm, exhausted. Epi gave blessed relief and chance to sleep, it was great having nurses coming in and saying 'oh look at those great contractions' on the chart and me going back to sleep.

Downside was delivery; I felt it was too effective (no pleasing some people) as I was totally numb to my toes, had extreme difficulty using my legs to push against, and I had no idea whether I was pushing hard enough or where to direct the push. I found that pushing stage very difficult as it was so baffling to not know how effective my pushing was. In the end I needed ventouse and episiotomy. Which has healed very badly. In retrospect, if I do it again I'd prefer to have better assistance to manage pain of contractions and have a water birth. This option wasn't available to me as I never got to 4cm on my own .

[Rooster1]

I loved my epidural. Had it quite early on and it made my labour pretty enjoyable.

I don't think I could have delivered twins naturally without it! I felt no pain except when it began to wear off (about every hour) but the top-up would kick in straight away. I did feel a slight pressure feeling which was nice.

[BBWBabeLisa]

My epidural was a life saver in my opinion! Being diabetic and having obstetric cholestasis I was induced 2 weeks early. After several days trying to induce not much was happening so plans were made to break my waters at 7am, the anaesthetist was booked for 7.15am to put the epidural in (the midwives didn't think much of my pain threshold lol), and the syntocin (sp) drip was put up at 7.30. I spent the day feeling little cramping sensations which the midwife said were not contractions as her monitor said I wasn't contracting yet (I suspect that had more to do with the huge amount of fat on my tummy stopping her monitor from getting any contraction readings). She called the consultant in to see if she could up the syntocin to try and start contractions, he examined me and said, fully dilated, get ready to push! This was about 3.30pm. Pushing failed, ventouse failed, forceps failed. The room filled with people talking about a crash c-section. They didn't think topping up my epidural would work in time so they planned to knock me out. At my weight (at the time almost 23 stone) a general anaesthetic would have been extremely high risk so I kept begging them not to knock me out. They said they'd try an epidural top up but weren't hopefull. Within a couple of minutes of putting the top-up in I was completely numb and the c-section took place with me fully awake. I was convinced if I got knocked out it would kill me, I'm so incredibly thankful to that wonderful anaesthetist who put my epidural in so well (Chris at Frimley Park). All the doctors in theatre were talking about what a great job he'd done. I now have a gorgeous 4 month old little girl, and have had no negative after-effects from the epidural.

[barefeete]

I loved my epidural. I was completly out of it when my contractions really started to burn and kept passing out and then waking up when they were fully blown. I wouldn't have coped without my epidural as everything felt so out of control.
At the time I felt like i had let my DH and DS down by having it but i think that was just my hormones raging.
It was weird trying to pee afterwards though, not one of my most attractive moments!

[lilymum]

4 kids, did births 1 and 3 without and 2 and 4 with epidurals. Ones with were much more relaxed, felt more in control. Both times epidural only worked down one side and had to be jigged about and topped up to get full effect. But still felt head crowning even with epidurals - ouch!

[purpletink]

Hi
I had 3 deliveries - one with no pain relief and the others were with epidurals. The first epidural didnt feel anything - I think they gave me a massive dose as I was so traumatised after first birth - the second epidural was great, very well controlled, had enough sensation to push my daughter out by myself! No after effects from either of them - why be a martyr??
hope this helps

[porolli]

I've had three deliveries.
first with epidural - worked on one side only initially and prevented me from being able to push, so a large episiotomy.
second - no pain relief.
third - epidural administered too late: put in and baby pushed out (feeling everything) ten mins later. then very bad reaction to the epidural for me, meaning four days in hospital.

all in all, think they don't work for me! however, I remember the blessed blessed relief of the pain going away with no.1 and i was crying out for them with nos 2 and 3. just in retrospect, I don't think it was worth the repercussions.

[VTired]

Epidural didn't work for me at all - I wouldn't bother with one if there's a next time.

Anaesthetist administered epidural v. quickly and painlessly ...but it didn't work. I could feel EVERYTHING. They topped it, pulled it out, put it back in again, and again etc (4 times in all, back was like a pin cushion), even tried different types of anaesthetic but it still had no effect whatsoever! At this point they explained I was a medical mystery, one of those rare people not responsive to anaesthetic. Was a tad concerned when after all this was told needed emergency C-section as baby in distress...

Anyway, all worked fine in the end. Had a spinal block which worked (but only for about 45 mins)but it was long enough for DS to arrive safely.

Only benefit i got from epidural was thinking, while i was pregnant, that i would have one and it would make things a little less painful, but in reality was useless!

SOrry for rant

[janey17]

2 babies. First time - hideous posterior labour. Almost fully dilated but baby wedged against my back so had an epidural at that point to see if he would move/ turn. Epidural worked though they literally had to pin me down to administer it at that stage of labour. However - when I had an emergency c-section four hours later it wasn't topped up sufficiently so well - gruesome all round.
Second time - c-section under spinal. Spinal was fantastic - made me realise just how bad the epidural had been!

[PinkKerPlink]

no, i had a dural tap

[jabberwocky]

My worked really well, although they had to poke me twice, grrr. The pain went away immdiately and my legs were never completely useless IYKWIM. The only problem I had was when they topped it up for the emergency c-section. Then I got the shivering side effect and it took them forever to get the Demerol added to counteract that. This time I plan to make sure they have it on hand first as it is a scheduled section.

[jessicaandrebeccasmummy]

1st Epidural with Jess worked FANTASTIC!

2nd one with Rebecca took the edge off for about 20 minutes and that was it!

POT LUCK i think!

[Florizel]

Epidural: Best invention ever!


Had epidural half-way through labour with DD1 which transformed me from a mooing farm-animal into a human-being able to chat happily to the midwife. It wore off so the crowning/actual birth hurt quite a lot, but nothing compared with the hell that was my contractions on just g&a. Pushing was easy - felt the pressure and stretching and everything. 6 hour labour.

DD2 came too quickly, about an hour and a half from first contractions, so I had her on just G&A. It was a good birth, but hideously painful and shocking.

Incidentally, when I broke my ankle really badly after DD1 was born, two big, burly casualty nurses took an end of my leg each and pulled hard to try to re-align the bones - unsuccessfully - and all I had was gas and air! I didn't feel a thing, but it doesn't seem to scratch the surface of a proper mid-labour contraction.

If I ever have another baby I'll be doing what my friend (a GP!) said, and scream "Epiduuuraaal" from the car park!

[Buddanjoe]

Reading these I can still feel the place where the needle went in throbbing!! (it's now 2 1/2 yrs later!) I had terrible trouble with an aching back for months after - does anyone else still hurt sometimes in the site of the needle?
Anyway, it didn't work, in fact when they stitched me up I nearly kicked the doctor in the face and they had to give me anesthetic. The best thing about it was that the morning after the anaesthetist - who was rather nice, in a Hugh Grant kind of way - woke me up at 8am and asked if everything had gone OK when he'd gone. Is that normal or what (or maybe I was hallucinating from the Pethidine)???!!!

[2labs]

Been interested to read this (6 months pg) - someone mentioned the anaesthetist has to tell you their success rate, which sounds helpful... but how do they measure their success rate? Does everyone get asked afterwards to score the anaesthetist on a scale of 1-10?

[chrissiejames]

would not give birth without an epidural! Had a mobile epidural at Queen Charlotte Hospital in Hammersmith so I had no pain but could still walk around. fantastic experience as I enjoyed the birth of first baby. Second baby - I waited too long to go to hospital so when I arrived I was already fully dilated and requested an epidural. They said they wouldn't normally give it at this stage as I was ready to push. I was being a bit of a princess and said I wouldn't push until I got my epidural. It arrived 45 minutes later and although it was hard to hold still through the contractions while they injected me, it was all worth it, and turned pain into pleasure instantly!
I had top-ups whenever I began to feel pain, but was always able to feel the contractions and was able to push well.

[melander]

I had an epidural - LOVED it. Was back to back too. LOVED my epidural for the first hour and then things slowly got more painful. V.good midwife topped me up, still pain, topped me up, still pain, in the end he'd given all he could give and the pain was BACK big time. I wasn't dilating and a c-section was looming. They called the anaesthetist back and he discovered that my epidural had migrated into a vein? and all the top ups were going straight into my blood stream and straight to my head. As a result there was NOTHING I could have except a spinal which I really needed at that stage coz things were really bad and dilation wasn't happening. (Either that or I was a red-head wuss if you believe that theory). The doc said "Didn't you notice you were going light headed??" I said: After 8 hours of this, I've been light headed for ages! Had the second epidural as soon as the spinal allowed (needed that to get the epidural back in) and then had a lovely little boy delivered babushka-doll style.
I was petrified of epidurals pre-labour and ended up getting an appointment with an anaethetist to talk me through the whole thing as DH was petrified of me NOT having one.

Long winded, sorry. Apparently the doctors have to warn you about migrating epidurals but it "never happens".... I was the first in fifteen years at this particular hospital!!
I would still recommend epidurals though.

[melander]

I had an epidural - LOVED it. Was back to back too. LOVED my epidural for the first hour and then things slowly got more painful. V.good midwife topped me up, still pain, topped me up, still pain, in the end he'd given all he could give and the pain was BACK big time. I wasn't dilating and a c-section was looming. They called the anaesthetist back and he discovered that my epidural had migrated into a vein? and all the top ups were going straight into my blood stream and straight to my head. As a result there was NOTHING I could have except a spinal which I really needed at that stage coz things were really bad and dilation wasn't happening. (Either that or I was a red-head wuss if you believe that theory). The doc said "Didn't you notice you were going light headed??" I said: After 8 hours of this, I've been light headed for ages! Had the second epidural as soon as the spinal allowed (needed that to get the epidural back in) and then had a lovely little boy delivered babushka-doll style.
I was petrified of epidurals pre-labour and ended up getting an appointment with an anaethetist to talk me through the whole thing as DH was petrified of me NOT having one.

Long winded, sorry. Apparently the doctors have to warn you about migrating epidurals but it "never happens".... I was the first in fifteen years at this particular hospital!!
I would still recommend epidurals though.