Epidural ?

[firstimer91]

So I am due to give birth in the next 3 weeks and was quite adamant that I would avoid epidural unless absolutely necessary.

Then at a family gathering today, an opinionated aunt said I am being silly, if the pain reliefs there I should take it and if I resist I can become tired and the baby stressed.

I also said I was thinking of water birth to which she just laughed.

It has shaken me up a bit... any opinions?

Thanks

I hoped for a water labour. Got to hospital and did spend the next eight hours in a pool, which was wonderful except for labour not progressing and then my PGP getting much worse. So the MW told me to think hard about an epidural and I agreed to try it. Very glad as had another 20+ hours to go. Second labour was similar.
One epidural was perfect, could vaguely feel my feet so could kneel and push. The other was so strong my legs were pure jelly so with only DP we couldn't get me turned over.

One thing is that a common side effect is involuntary shivers, which can last for days after birth (3 for me). Not a problem but would be freaky if not known about in advance.

I'm convinced that labour is felt differently for everyone. Why else would someone say that it felt like they were dying but others say the pain is perfectly manageable? I also think that fear makes any pain seem worse, so try and relax as much as possible.

There is no benefit to anybody from you choosing to experience all of that pain.

I disagree. Labouring women may each experience contractions differently, have different pain thresholds, and different responses to pain. We do not all labour identically.

Implying that a woman should not experience the sensations of labour completely is as prescriptive and unhelpful as implying that a woman who has had a highly medicalised has not 'done it properly'.

firstimer, neither you nor anyone else can take control of labour. Be informed, be open-minded, trust your body's amazing ability to give birth. Take whatever help or support you wish. And learn to smile and nod, smile and nod, as everyone and their auntie's neighbour's guinea pig gives you their expert opinion.

I was similar to you, keen to avoid an epidural but didn't really want to rule anything out.
I was booked in to a MLU though, so epidural wasn't on offer - though it was based within a hospital unit if I changed my mind. As it was I was 8cm on arrival so wouldn't have been given one anyway. I did use a pool for some of labour and I would recommend it!

I think you really can't know what's going to work for you until you're there - had I had a prolonged labour I think I might have gone for one. Absolutely nothing wrong with whatever pain relief you choose to have (or not have).
Your aunt should mind her business, but as others say she will probably not be the last to give you unwanted advice!

I'm not even due yet but I have already (pretty much) decided that I'm 100% pro the epidural! But it's each persons individual choice so don't let someone else's opinion discourage you from what you want :-) Your baby, your body, your choice!

I had two, but I gave birth in France where they are pretty much standard. Everyone thought I was odd even questioning it as an option - why would you want to be in pain if you don't have to be? It was fab. The great thing about an epidural is that a pain-free labour means you can rest and save your strength for the delivery itself so you've got more energy to push when the time comes. I would keep an open mind, see how you feel and be grateful it is there as an option.

3 children - 3 epidural /you are fine I went home with mine same day

What a load of nonsense!

If you feel like you need an epidural, then by all means go for it, but it isn't a given that you are going to find labour so painful you need one.

Plenty of women cope just fine on gas and air, myself included, and my babies were 8.14 and 9.8...some people just love to tell a horror story when in fact, labour is a very natural process which you are very capable of, just like every other woman that has given birth long before an epidural was even an option.

There's nothing wrong with pain relief if that's the route you go down, but a natural pain relief free birth is far from stressful on the baby, infact, there are huge benefits to a drug free birth.

Just go with the flow and ignore these ignorant scare mongers.

Good luck!

It’s all very well saying labour is natural, and our bodies are capable and people gave birth before modern medicine... also a significant percentage of women died in childbirth back in the day. The “all natural” approach is a nice aspiration but not all births can be unassisted and successful.

By all means hope for a waterbirth if that's what you want and just plan to keep your options open just in case. I was induced after my waters went with the baby back to back and had the drip, once that started i couldn't stand or talk and found it hard to breathe with the pain, the epidural was amazing and I would never rule it out. A natural birth would have been wonderful and much preferred but it just wasn't to be. Don't feel bad if you need some pain relief that's what it was invented for. It frustrates me when people say you don't need it you can manage with just gas and air, I'm sure it's true for some lucky people but it's different for everyone, you can't predict it, and if you need it, you'll be grateful it's an option.

It's equally frustrating on threads like this to see the tidal wave of posters who tell others that labour was like been cut in half by a chain saw, and that pain relief is inevitable.

There is just as much chance, in fact, a greater chance, that op will cope just fine.

Child birth isn't fun, but it's almost as if people these days think it's some kind of impossibility, that we are a species who for some reason need all of this intervention in order to keep the human race going. It's not true. Yes, some births will need intervention, some will need pain relief, but these should in theory be few and far between. Sadly, with the huge of medicalization of birth, intervention is now seen as the noraml, and normal birth is seen as "luck"...what a sad state the busienss of childbirth has got itself into.

What utter nonsense! Childbirth has always been enormously painful for the overwhelming majority of women. It's completely untrue to pretend otherwise. It has also been hugely dangerous for both the mother and the baby. You only need to look at the literature of any society in the world, or at central cultural documents like the bible to see that people everywhere at all times regarded birth as painful and something to be feared.

When I or anybody else I know is having a baby, we are not thinking about "keeping the human race going". The human race can keep going just fine, right alongside a huge number of maternal and infant deaths. What we want is the safety of ourselves and our own baby.

Medical intervention might not be quite as precise as we might like but there is no doubt that it is lifesaving. For example, the breech birth study showed that 95% of vaginal breech births were alive and largely ok. That's an overwhelming majority, right? But the remaining 5% were dead or hideously injured. By your logic, that would be just fine. But not for me, not for my baby, not for the vast majority of people so c-section is recommended for breech birth. Of course, if we knew in advance which babies would be ok and which would have awful outcomes, then they would only recommend sections for 5% of breech babies instead of 100% of them. The thing is though, there is no way of knowing in advance which category any particular baby will fall into. So from your perspective you are seeing 95% unnecessary sections, and heck the human race as a whole would survive without the breech babies, from mine I see amazing lifesaving intervention.

Survival rates for mothers and for babies have never ever been as high as they are today in western countries with easy access to modern medicine. What has also changed is the expectation we have that every mother and every baby will come out of the process ok. This is an enormous rarity in history and in geography. Saying "what a sad state re business of childbirth has gotten itself into" shows a very skewed viewpoint.

And to say natural birth is not stressful on a baby? The baby's skull is subject to such pressure that its bones change shape.

@sycamore...by full gestation, the percentage of breech births is between 1-3% of the population...I think it is you that is talking utter nonsense.

And as for the bones changing shape and this causing stress, this a natural physiological process, it doesn't cause stress, and infact,is an important part of the birth.

Honestly,I think you need to educate yourself on labour and birth.

Yes and of these 1-3% of babies who are breech, only 5% will die if we don't intervene. A vanishingly tiny number by your focus on the survival of the species. But we intervene for all of them. Because for each mother, she doesn't care about the human race; she cares about her baby. Medical intervention is an extraordinarily wonderful thing.

can you give me evidence please that having your head crushed in the birth canal is not stressful? The baby's heart rate patterns during birth certainly indicate stress. It's certainly not a necessary part of birth - it doesn't happen for c-section babies and there is no evidence that they are the worse off for it. Indeed c-section is generally safer for the baby than vagunal birth.

Good Lord @sycamore...your opinion some up everything that is wrong with the over medicalization of birth.
The evidence that it isn't problematic to the baby is evolutionary...if it we're, our bodies wouldn't do it. In fact, many c section babies are referred to cranial osteopaths in order to help their skills which should have traveled through the birth canal.

@Namechangemum100 Pointless argument, she is very strong in her standpoint against natural/drug free/home births. That's fine but to make it sound like everyone else is wrong is not.

Op, I swear that it really didn't go badly for me and others that I know. Many people have a positive birth but you don't hear about them because nobody wants to listen, they're drowned out by people who want to share their experience and have extrapolated that to mean that all births are similar to their experience.

If you want an epidural/c section that's absolutely fine, but choose it only if it's the best option for you, not because some people want to scare you into it. I had some horrendous things said to me when pregnant with my first, it almost seemed like people were competing for who had the worst time because they want acknowledgement that they did something amazing/better than everyone else. They ignore the fact that getting a baby here in any way is a fantastic achievement, out the door or through the sunroof!

It is a physiological change that babies are liteterally made to go through. Their bones are not fused for the exact purpose to let them pass through the birth canal.
C sections have their time and place but to make it sound like they are a completely safe option is ridiculous. It is major surgery, things can and do go wrong. Our bodies are made to do this otherwise we would have died out centuries ago, I doubt anyone is saying that interventions aren't necessary because obviously sometimes they are but to try and say they are necessary for every birth is wrong. Women give birth everyday without major medical intervention such as section, forceps etc. Every birth is different and should be treated as such.
Oh and btw I had an emergency c section so I have nothing against them at all.

Oh...And major abdominal surgery most certainly isn't safer than a vaginal birth.

Please don't give any pregnant women your advice...it's utter garbage.

I didn't want pain relief for my first but did end up with 2 epidurals after the first didn't work. It's fine really. But your family are not the ones giving birth, it is 100% your choice. My advice to you would be, go with the birth plan you want but be open to changing it on the day, you won't know really how you feel until you are in labour. Just don't close yourself off to it. You might manage fine without, lots of people do! Best of luck, the birth is such a small part, baby arriving safely is the most important thing

Oh and op the way you birth is completely up to you. There is nothing wrong with drug free, just as there is nothing wrong with an epidural or a c section. Don't let people scare you before it has begun. I didn't find the pain that bad even though mine ended up in an emcs so this time I am trying for a vbac. I don't understand woman who try to scare other women before they give birth, it helps no one but themselves.

There is a lot of misinformation about epidurals on this thread. www.labourpains.com/home
Is the anaesthetist written information site. It's very good!

I'm due my first baby on Wednesday and I've had all the horror stories and peoples opinions thrown at me, I'm taking it as it comes. I don't know my pain threshold and will take advice from midwife, I have however got myself a TENs machine and asked to give the birthing pool a go, I have said however I don't want morphine as it can effect baby.
I think if you do your research on pain relief options and go in with an open mind you'll be fine, also speak to your midwife. Each birthing experience is different, be prepared for your plan to go tits up also. Good luck!

I had three days of early labour, and then rocked up to the hospital begging for help because I'd not slept more than 20 minutes at a time in those 3 days. I had two shots of pethadine and then the epidural. It was wonderful for me, even though I had to have a catheter too. The only down side was that my right leg was numb from hip to toe for 24 hours afterwards and it took a couple of weeks for the feeling to fully come back in my foot. Other than that the epidural meant that I slept through a great deal of the labour, which was wonderful after three days of zero sleep. Without it I truly think I would have been exhausted and I suspect would have gotten into a lot of difficulty delivering. My anesthetist was fab, very quick, talked me through everything, and did lots of follow up for my leg. I'd happily have an epidural again, if I felt I needed it. I certainly want the option available next time.