Your experiences of patient controlled epidurals please?

[BettyButterchops]

Hello, after a chat with my consultant, I've decided on a patient controlled epidural, sited relatively early on in in labour. What a relief. son, now 6 was meant to be a home birth but circumstances meant a transfer with epidural and forceps. The problem was my epidural wasn't topped up when i reported pain. The patient controlled has been introduced since then and will allow me to top it up in safe increments by pressing a button linked to the drip. Sounds good to me, so long as there's enough in there for the pushing etc.

I'd really like to hear of anyone who has experience this themselves, in particular at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. I was i such bad all round shape after the horrendous labour last time that I missed out on the joy of my newborn. I am hopefully going to be in a better physical and psychological state and actually enjoy the birth and precious first weeks this time. Would love to know how others got on with this choice of pain relief. Thanks :)

I had one with labour for DS (5 weeks ago).

I have to admit to completely forgetting about the self administering of top ups. The midwife did it for me every 45 minutes or so.

My labour had been tough up to then - got to 6cm with back to back baby. Once the epidural kicked in I got some rest and got to fully dilated a few hours later.

Pushing took a bit of concentration at first - I couldn't tell at first if I was having contractions so missed the chances to push initially once I was able to. But the midwives helped me read the signs and once I felt anything like pressure I pushed. Managed to avoid any interventions and also any stitches! won't tell you about the piles though

I also was able to walk from labour room to shower room approx 2.5hrs after labour so epidural wore off really quickly.

I was so scared of having the epidural before it was put in but the regular top up was fab.

Just read more posts - the patient controlled stuff was definitely strong enough. I was on syntocinon drip (had waters broken before due date as baby was v active, had been admitted to hospital two days before because he was transverse with cord down and just kept moving round. Eventually got head down and waters broken then.)
I was literally wild with pain before getting the epidural, I managed with gas and air for as long as I could but then pretty much just begged for more pain relief. Body was also pushing uncontrollably.

The epidural was magical. Seriously magical. I could doze and got my energy back. The anaesthetist was excellent and got the level just right for the initial epidural and the top ups (even if I forgot about it and midwife sorted it for me).

These epidurals seems to have worked well for lots of women... thank goodness you're commenting here as not much online about them, just the regular epidurals.

Possibly because in a lot of hospitals patient controlled is the standard offering? . So people would just talk about an epidural . Bit like how I am told by young people that it's just a phone, not a mobile.

Good point. I have midwife kn Mon, so will pounce questions on her when as a warm up. Certainly not an option at my hosp 5 years ago and not discussed at nct... glad its out there now, but still keen on the men having the babies. That really would leave me pain free :)