'mobile' epidurals

[Catz]

Sorry if this is an odd question but do mobile epidurals exist?!

Lots of people I know have talked about them enthusiastically saying pain is taken away but you can still change position, move around to an extent and feel enough to know when to push. Sounds perfect. I went to the NHS class at my local hospital and the midwife running it told us that mobile epidurals were a myth, it was just that epidurals had different effects on different people so when you ask for an epidural you don't know whether or not you'll be able to be mobile - just good luck if you are. Friends of mine tell me that they went to same hospital, asked for mobile epi and that's what the got.

Am confused, anyone know the answer or have any exprience of them? I seem to be drifting away from 'home birth with whale music' towards 'all possible pain relief immediately' as things get closer!!

Catz (36+2)

[morocco]

have you tried a google scholar web search (sorry if that is a daft question, not sure how many people use it), that way you get the medical articles etc rather than the waffle.
kind of sounds like you just don't want to believe what the websites are telling you? don't mean that in a mean way, but just wondering.
you could ask the mw for detailed refs to check out if you are like me and like to know in great detail about everything

[Catz]

Oh and nonscareymidwife, thanks for explaining in so much detail. If the mw at the NHS class had said all of that it would have been really helpful! Fancy coming back to the JR in a few weeks time?!

[Klaw]

Catz, I'm not at all medically minded and some of the research takes me a while to get my heard round. Have you been to Ronnie Falcao's website at all? Here is her page on epidurals

[Klaw]

And there's also Radmid page on Epidurals

[Catz]

Thanks Klaw - the closest I get to medical knowledge is combined science GCSE nearly 15 yrs ago so I know what you mean (though luckily my DH is a research scientist so he can usually decode for me is I pester enough!) It's just that a lot of my work is reseach based (not science at all) so I seem to be programmed to be sceptical about everything!

I will look at those pages, many thanks for your help.

[Klaw]

You're welcome Catz!

[NoviceKnitter]

Just been reading this useful thread. I'm quite interested in going for the low dose epidural if labour turns out to be protracted but would like to stop top ups in time for delivery. Any idea how on earth it's possible to time that right?

[RubberDuck]

A note of caution ... first time around I had them switch off the (normal) epidural in time for the delivery (in my birth notes) and it was AGONY ... going from NO pain straight to THE most painful bit of transition was not a nice experience. Very much wish that (given I had the epidural anyway) I'd just stuck with epidural all the way through!

[NoviceKnitter]

Good advice RD. My main mission is to stay open minded and see what feels right on the day. I'm keen to squat/stand/use gravitationally optimal positions if poss, and my hosp does low dose epidurals. We'll see what happens though... ooh could be any day!

[Catz]

I have discovered the answer to my original question - why did the midwife say that mobile epidurals didn't exist when people claimed to have had them at that very hospital? Thought I'd post it on here in case it is useful.

Apparently - according to my NCT teacher - people who are not very clued up keep turning up to the hospital in labour asking for the 'drug that takes away the pain but still lets you walk around the park' or something like that. To stop this confusion the hospital is refusing to use the term 'mobile epidural' but they still do them - they just call them low dose epidurals (or similar) and make it clear that you have to be on or round the bed though you can move. I guess that makes sense but why the NHS mw didn't simply explain this rather than denying their existence I do not know. Virtually all of us at the NCT class had been confused by info at the hospital and we'd all gone to different sessoins.

in any case, if it is useful to anyone else, if you're told that there are no mobile epis you might want to ask about 'low dose ones'. I guess that's a better term anyway given the restrictions on mobility.

[MrsMar]

HI Catz... I remembered you started this thread a while ago, just wanted to tell you something I found out at my first ante natal class yesterday. My local hospital now considers all it's epidurals as mobile as they tend towards lower dose, enough to lessen the pain and allow some sensations, but also allow some movements (no cartwheels!) ie getting on to knees or all fours to assist delivery.

Mind you, seeing as you were 36 weeks back in June I'm sure you've had your baby, I hope it all went well!

[Catz]

Hi MrsMar,

Thanks for that, that's really helpful. No, no baby yet - due on Wed (but no 'twinges' as yet so could be another couple of weeks yet...) I'm still not sure whether to have one of these but it sounds like a good option to have. Think I will see how things go and keep this as the back up option. My mum had really long labours with quite big babies so I think there's a strong possiblity that I might need one! Hope that all is going well with you.

Catz