epidural or nothing?

[steff1stbabysep06]

hi i am looking for some advice on Epidurals...i live in Spain where here the pain relief options are epidural or nothing.i am 38 weeks pregnant so could drop any day really and im so confused.would you say it is something you will automatically know when you go into labour..whether you want it or not? im worried i will say yes and regret it and again i am worried i will say no and spend the rest of the labour majorly regretting it wishing id taken the option while i could as they say it will not be administered after 5cm dilation?how can you decide before then because surely you dont know how much worse its going to get?im 21 so people say oooh your young and able you wont need it and my mum who lives in the uk had a bad experience with one and has put me off.I am just so confused as dont know what to expect....i think i would be more inclined to say no if there was gas and air, pethidine etc as options...peoples views on epidurals pleeeeease! thanks

Sparklemagic, I'm with you. After 1 1/2 days in hospital, then induction followed 7 hours of excruciating contractions every three minutes I was told I'd made it to 2 cm and baby was back to back. That was enough for me. Several bungled attempts and a consultant later, when the epi kicked in it was BLISS!!!

Also had the fortunate side effect of allowing me to sleep for the next few hours while baby turned around - which meant I didn't need intervention. Without the epi I would have required forceps/ventouse and/or c-section.

If I have to be induced for the next baby I will definitely request epidural.

I have had both drug free and epidural. Physically I recovered much quicker after Drug free birth as I had to have forceps with Epidural. I think if I ever got PG again I would aim for drug free but would think in the back of my mind the epi was available.

I don't know if it worked but I had tried an Hypnotherapy tape for childbirth leading up to the birth and some of the messages were with me during each contraction. It might be worth a try.

Can you get a mobile epidural in SPain. I suspect there are fewer complication with these.

Yeah, pupuce, that's what I mean by "assisted". Forceps, ventouse, episiotomy, c - section. My epidural worked low down but not up high. I felt all contractions just as much but couldn't feel how to push properly when it counted. . Having said that, I know that many people have fantastic epidurals and mine had a lot of chance of not working because I have a bad back condition that prevented them from getting it in well.

Increased chances of things like this is what women do risk in choosing an epidural but many do have fantastic births with them.

Try not to loose sleep over it though, Steff. In a few weeks, you will have a beautiful baby . It doesn't happen so quickly that you get to 5cm without having a good idea of what the pain is like/going to be like and plenty of time to think some more.

I didn't mean the 'only goal....' at the expense of the mum! I just think women are put under a lot of pressure to have drug free births as if having pain killers some how undermines the experience. The mother and the baby being OK are in my opinion the main goals of childbirth. Women shouldn't feel guilty if they need painkillers, or obviously should never be pressured into having them if they don't.

hi steff, I had similar options giving birth to ds2 (vbac) and did ok with back rubs, baths, tens machine - I'd really recommend one if you can get one out to you at short notice. I'm sure if you said no to the epidural then changed your mind it would still be set up for you (esp if you or your insurance have to pay for it! then you'll be guaranteed!). Good luck with it all. my mum was the same btw - I think things were different 'in their day'

The first time around (induction) I had an epidural as a last resort and it was pure bliss. The last 6 hours or so were far more bearable than the previous 34hrs.

The second time (another induction) I went straight for the epidural option. The labour was far shorter than the first time (only 6hrs) and I was so comfortable that I could actually sleep through a lot of the contractions.

The 3rd time I was induced again but the MW refused to let me have an epidural, despite dd being in a back-to-back position. The MW refused to believe I was in labour, didn't check my progress and only reluctantly let me have gas & air and later pethidine. The labour lasted about 10 hours so was actually longer than the labour I had with an epidural. The only good thing I would say about it was that I was able to walk round to the ward afterwards and have a shower rather than have a bed-bath and a catheter.

There has been at east 1 study done after birth to see if there was any difference in how women re-counted/described their birth.
As far as I can remember the comparison was drug free/opiates/sections
and the group that used most superlatives were the drug freee ones... From a bioly/physiology stand point that makes sense as if you have no drugs you are solely relying on your endorphins ; natural pain killers and mood enhancers... so they give you a natural high.
Now that does NOT mean that all drug free births are great and "druged" births are not... I did NOT say that !

From my experience of having read over 1.000 birth accounts I would say that I have read all sorts from amazing to horrendous. One thing that has struck me is that a lot of the women who wrote their birth - for me - and who had an epidural were not that pleased with it/regretted it... not everyone was like that i should add. I know that for some women it is the way to do it and that's fine but I also seem to notice that the pain relief takes (for some) the satisfaction/sense of achievment out of it.... and I am not talking about those very difficult/long labour. I don't find the guilt so much of an issue in itself.... well that's just from my experience in my line of work.
I am of the belief that you do your best with what you're given.... there are useful ways of using drugs in labour.... I just think they are over-used on the continent and to some degree here.... but that's a whole other debate.

Check exactly what the procedure is for having an epidural. I had my 3 privately - 3 different clinics in 3 different countries - and the anaesthetist was always waiting in the next room to give me the epidural when I wanted it. Contractions become truly agony, especially if you 'fail to progress' and decide to have a drip to speed it all up, so it's good to know that total pain relief is only 5-10 mins away.

If they get it right, the pain goes but you can still feel the contractions coming and can still move your legs and get into different positions. You might find that one or both of your legs gets a bit numb or heavy, so you don't really want to walk about much (v.small sacrifice imo, especially if you're in labour at night and would rather have a lie down anyway). If you're worried about not knowing where to push, you can just let the epi wear off before the end. They should only put a bit of anaesthetic in and then keep topping up when you tell them it's wearing off.

I have had two out of two epidural assisted labours. Both my babies had to be induced early due to Obstetric Cholestasis so I unfortunately have no idea what 'natural' childbirth consists of. The experience of epidural depends mainly on the anaethetist who administers it. My first epidural deadened feeling to the extent that I couldn't push very well and had to have a ventouse delivery. However, I couldn't recommend the experience I had with my son highly enough! I had painful bearing down sensations (though not excruciating), knew exactly when to push and for how long, had a natural delivery and felt no pain during stitching (know quite a few mums who coped well with birth due to all the endorphins but who found being stitched a horrible experience).
My advice is, if you're having a labour induced from scratch, don't let them turn the syntocin drip on until the epidural is in place!

Can I ask whether you have had your baby and what you decided in the end (if you have time to be looking at this site)?

I have the same decision to make in Belgium (no pain relief at all or an epidural), and I am on the point of deciding to have the baby in the UK instead.

Can I ask whether you have had your baby and what you decided in the end?

I have the same decision to make in Belgium (no pain relief at all or an epidural) and I'm on the point of deciding to have the baby in the UK instead.

I had an epidural with DD2 and although it got rid of the pain I had the midwifes telling me when to push, which just doesn't seem right. Anyway baby was OP and just could not get her out and ended with an em cs.

With DS3 my body just started pushing when it needed to, it was nothing like DD2 "clenched teeth, trying to push, feet braced up against the bed". I think this is because I did not have an epidural.

Anyway my advice would be too go without anything as long as possible.

I think it depends what type of person you are tbh. I had an epidural with ds1, and I now wish I hadn't - I hadn't planned to, and was unprepared for what transition (7 cm) felt like - it didn't help that the student mw wouldn't let me down to delivery before that, so I was in a bit of a panic all round.

Dd and ds2 were both born at home with no pain relief. It's not true to say that there is no other option - like mears says, massage, breathing, aromatherapy can help, and it's really important to have a good birth partner, who can represent you to the midwives/doctors.

If you can go without, it does make interventions less likely, and if everything went wrong, they could take you for a c/s, so it's not the end of the road at 5cm if you opt for no epidural.

Hope it all goes really well, and looking forward to your birth announcement!

I had my first baby last October.I had an epidural at 5cm for pain relief and because I couldnt stop pushing so the midwife said I risked tearing. It was great! No pain. Hoorah. The epidural was meant to be topped up every 45 mins but I just used gas and air until I really felt I needed a top up which was about every 2-3 hours. The only down side was that I couldnt feel when to push. This didnt cause any great problems though as in the end I only pushed for 40 mins without needing any help. I had a second degree tear but once stitched this didnt cause any problems either.

i had a baby on Saturday so I've not yet had my obligatory hormonal automatic 'brain wipe'. I would say that the epidural helped me focus on pushing and the atual pain, when the doses needed renewing, distracted from my focus on pushing and if I'd not had a top-up epidural, I don't know if I'd have managed to push the child out on my own, but with it I did.

If you think you might want an epidural , don't mess about too much, ask for it early on. They might tell you "it's too late" later.

I would definitely have another epidural, wouldn't even contemplate not doing it.

Hope your birth goes really well. Good luck with everything.

Evening all am new to this talk so pls bear with me if my abbreviations are all wrong! I have dd1 and ds4, each time was so different. I had a cesction with twins 1st and had a spinal, i hated it. It just made me feel dead frm legs down. With dd i tried 4 a home birth she got stuck and i was whizzed in to hosp, i had been pushing b4 i was ready and my cervix was swelling and tearing. I had an epidural it was bliss!!! She had an enormous head and i had a third degree tear, so grateful for the epidural. Next i went for home birth and ds came out fine {small head!} No pain relief. Next ds5 at home again no pain relief but so quick even if i had wanted an epidural i would not have had time. I just think you need to leave it till your in the moment, never say never. Dont be a martyr, a good birth partner who will support you whatever is so important. Ultimately go for thinking you dont need one self belief is a marvellous thing.

I had no pain relief with mine. Spent 2 out of the 3 hrs I was in with no2 trying to decide whether or not to have one. They said I was too relaxed between contractions to need one. I'm glad I didn't. Wouldn't have been necessary for me.

I'm with Piffle... move around, it really helps.

i as induced with both my kids and would recommend an epidural for that as pain hits you like a brick wall and it is constant. however my friend had 2 births with only g&a but she also had both kids within an hour of arriving at hospital. i would keep your options open!