Three Hour Wait for Epidural

[MyBeautifulBabyGirl]

Just thinking about my first/only labour....was it standard practice to wait three hours for an Epidural ?
I read earlier that someone had an Epidural sited before they were even started to be induced....it just confused me

mbbg.

who told you it will be the same again, btw?

who told you it will be the same again, btw?

The head midwife. She said the same start things would stay the same...i.e I would have to be in hospital, lying on my back in a bed, constant drip, constant monitoring...no moving, no water birth

I can't see how things could magically end up better than last time

And deep down, I know i really want another baby but I'm a coward and I can't face another labour like last time, hence the change of mind.

mbbg my induction was like that. i found out later that i didn't have to sbmit, they can't tie you to the bloody bed. anyway, never again will i put up with that sort of thing, please don't let it put you off having another baby. you could do homebirth, get a doula, all sorts of things.

was it hte head midwife you went through notes wiht? no wonder you didn't feel any better what a nasty old bag. why not take up lulumama's offer,

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

Contact birth trauma and make a formal complaint to the hospital. Tell them the birth was so traumatic you are unable to face the prospect of having any more children in their rotten hospital.

Can you afford a doula or independent midwife next time to speak up for you? Or is there another hospital you could use?

i arrived in the labour ward at 9am and 4cm dilated, and imediately said I wanted an epidural - was told anaethetist was not be available due to an emergency- asked again at 11am and told still not available. I asked how often did it happen that no anaethetist was available and told it was very rare
I eventually got one in the afternoon when I required an emergency CS.
The two women who were in the same ward as me next day had also asked for epidurals at different times from me and also didn't get them for different "reasons".
I think hospital policy must be to try and put people off getting them.

agree with edam, you should complain, my god their barbaric treatment of you is actually making you think that you can't face having another baby!
i was induced and i was able to bounce on the ball and walk around (a bit) for the first 4-ish hours. after the wonky epidural i was sitting up or kneeling on the bed, one of those beds that folds in loads of different directions. so it definititely can be done and your midwife is definitely a lying auld bitch.
and you are not cowardly, you had a bad experience is all. i was induced, i had an epidural and it didn't work and i'd go through labour again in a minute. i'm not brave (can't stress that enough), it's just that my labour was A Good Experience...
please speak to lulu, she's very lovely and she knows what it's like to have had a bad time of it.

MBBG

honey...

please, if you can, do not let this bad experience colour your view of having more babies...

as has been suggested there are things you can do to make a birth experience more positive.

my induction was like you described. stuck on the bed, monitor, drip, not moving, not active, failure to progress. then emergency c.s

you can refuse constant monitoring, being stck on a bed, having a drip...none of these things can be done without your consent.

TBH, after a c.s there is a big likelihood that you would not be induced anyway if you went post dates...a VBAC ( vaginal birth after caesarean) does not have to involve being stuck on the bed, on a monitor....

and of course, there is the option of elective c.s...where it would be a lot less traumatic . HOwever, vaginal birth is receommended post c.s where possible

the more i read about birth, the more i see, that for many women, this type of managed birth is doomed.....

my second birth was a totally different experience, as i knew how I wanted it to be...i read up about it and educated myself.

my baby girl was born vaginally, with no intervention , intact perineum and an established labour of 3 1/4 hours !! i had the support of a friend and my mum, which made all the difference. I had found about about doulas , but there were none in my area, but it was what made me decide to train as one.....

so it is not true at all that your second labour would be the same at all, and that is a very negative attitude of the midwife ,and not likely to fill you with confidence.

i have 6 years between my children as i was terrified of the same thing happening, but once the depression had lifted and i started learning about birth, i could see it was possible.

it is so hard. especially when the memory is so fresh

please please contact me if you feel you can...

(((hug)))

MBBG I had an absolutely awful experience the first time around, induction, drip, epidural that didn't work and although I escaped a CS by the skin of my teeth, my baby was not well when he was born and I had severe PND afterwards. More than 7 years later I still can't talk about his birth without crying. When I got pregnant again I asked for an elective section which I was allowed and I did this again for my third birth and it was a far better experience. As it happens I went on to have a very lovely vaginal delivery 16 months ago, but it took me a long time and lots and lots of talking to get to that point.

Please don't give up on the idea of another baby if it's what you want and I would agree with everyone else's recommendations to try and get some proper counselling.

lulumama, I have sent you a very very long email.I hope that is alright.

---------
Thanks for the positive comments

thank you ! have just replied briefly..i am going to sit and read fully when DD is not climbing on me and poking my eyes ! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

During my pregnancy I was told by several 'friends' that because my Mum had horrendous labour having me, I was bound to have the same...never mind the fact that our pregnancies were totally different (she had pre-eclampsia, I didn't; I was born 2 weeks early, my DD was 12 days overdue so had to be induced).

My Mum's experience is the reason I am an only child.

My labour was not easy and I would like to think that it would have been easier to cope with if I had not been induced. But I have spoken to several women who have had difficult first experiences of labour (some with inductions, some without) who have gone on to much more positive experiences of second (and subsequent) labours. My cousin who was induced with her first and had very long and difficult labour ending in emergency C-section, went into hospital with her second after 2 hours of contractions, sat on the delivery bed and thought she had sat on her bag only to find it was the baby's head!!

I know stories like these probably don't help when you are still suffering after your horrible experience but how old is your DD now? Take your time in talking and thinking things over. I found it definitely helps to talk to people who have had similar experiences and I found that talking to people who have only had uncomplicated, very positive experiences of labour made me feel worse as I felt as though they were somehow judging me for being a 'wimp' and not coping as well as they did. Maybe that's just me though...

that might be you, GG, really. as someone who had a relatively easy time of it i am always full of admiration for friends who had a rotten time. i've one friend who thinks she's a failure for having had a crash cs, whereas the way i see it she laboued much longer and hard than me, and then had to have the almighty pisser of having an emergency op as well. i'm hardly going to think that's wimpy, am i? i'd be inclined to think that most of us for whom it went okay are thinking 'there but for the grace of god', tbh... be proud that you got through it.