Pethedine or Epidural during labour?

[5Minions2CallMyOwn]

I’ve never had any pain relief as have always preferred the birthing pool on the birthing centre. But this time that won’t be available and I’ll be on labour ward. Since there’s no medal for being in pain and as it’s my last baby I’m thinking screw it I’ll have whatever they will give me Which is pethidine or an epidural they’ve told me.

I don’t know much about either, but they said I need to pick 1 as they won’t give me an epidural with pethidine in my system.

I’ll be getting to hospital when I’m at least 4cm- from there my babies usually come in about 4 hours.

Please can you share your experiences of both please? They said with pethidine I will get drowsy and sleep? And with an epidural I’ll be confined to a bed? What else should I know? Many thanks!

I had pethadine and an epidural in my first labour. Only pwthadine I’m my second. If you labour fairly quick you should be ok on the pethadine as it lasts about 4 hours. I was in labour for 12 hours so it wore off
You can labour under the shower on labour ward.

That’s really helpful, thank you @mayblossominapril

Would you say pethidine was fairly effective? Was baby born drowsy? I’d much rather be able to be active and with an epidural I can’t- but am unsure if pethidine will be strong enough when I’m in active labour? Thanks!

Yes I had a sleep n my first labour with it and slept in my second for a bit as well.
Neither babies were drowsy.
It was quick to administer
My epidural first time was ok but only worked on one side which was agony

I've not had an epidural but I did have pethidine. I really disliked it and vowed I'd never have it again - I would definitely have gone for an epidural the next time but ended up with a c section anyway. Pethidine made me feel horribly out of it, I was still in pain yet couldn't really talk properly to express this. The woozy feeling took ages to go even after the pain relief aspect had worn off. For balance, I know a couple of people who absolutely loved it and recommended it as really effective so it definitely works for some people, just not me!

This always surprises me ... I had pethidine given every 4 hours in labour at it didn't make me drowsy at all... just took the edge off the pain. I hate nitrous oxide though find it disorientating.

I had pethidine, and it made me far to drowsy/disorientated to actually be able to move.l even though physically it was possible.

I haven't had pethidine but I did have an epidural which was bliss compared to contractions on the drip! You can top up the epidural so you can control how much / little you feel and I was told they'd tell me when to stop topping it up so I could feel the sensation to push. Sadly ended up with emcs but they just topped up the epidural to max for that so I felt nothing! Downside is you have to have catheter etc and you're immobile for a while afterwards but I soon could move my legs etc after the surgery and was up the next day. I think if you have epidural for vaginal birth you'll be up and about quicker than that

Pethedine knocked me out. And dd was so drowsy they kept us in for a week. Never used it again.

It was quite a while ago but I had pethidine during oxytocin induction. It did nothing for the pain but sent me somewhere near the ceiling and I was rambling and in agony.
So a no from me.

Second time was a c section by epidural. Believe me it was comparative bliss. I couldn't believe it.
Stupidly I'd refused an epidural for my first as NCT were all natural birth good/ epidural bad. Ha!

It sounds like perhaps an epidural is the way to go?! I don’t mind not being to be mobile afterwards for a while, I’ll need to rest anyway. I just want to try one birth with pain relief- just to see the difference as had 6 without any.

I did like the idea of pethidine, but don’t like the risk of how sleepy I may get or baby. Plus I guess it’s not as pain free as an epidural. That’s if they can give me one in time!

Is there anything else I should know? Tips etc? I don’t know much about epidurals Xx

Epidural.

If you are planning on one or the other I would say go for the epidural. I had both (I had everything to be honest!) for both of my births, but ended up being on the induction drip for both of my births so ended up with epidural anyway. But if I had been planning on an epidural, then I wouldn't have gone for pethidine instead iyswim, just go straight for it!

No contest - did 2 naturally 2 epidural - take epidural every time!

OP, was that a typo, or have you seriously already had six deliveries?!
Because if this is your seventh, there may barely be time to insert an epidural before you deliver.

I have had 11. 10 vaginal births. 9 with just gas and air. Never wanted pain relief after that pethedine experience... Last dc was emcs at 35 weeks. Hated the epidural after effects. Had to take morphine for the head ache.

If you look at the labourpains.com site there is a lot of information about the different analgesia options for labour (it’s the obstetric anaesthetics association’s patient site and the leaflets are the ones we give our patients as part of the consent process for epidurals).

Even if an epidural leads to a ventouse/forceps delivery, it can be topped up quickly and therefore will not hurt.

I had pethidine in my first labour and like others felt horribly woozy but it didn't stop the pain. I just felt out of control and couldn't get comfortable and I think it spoiled my experience in a way. I didn't have it in any of my other labours.

I've never had an epidural so can't comment on that but it sounds preferable to pethidine for me.

I had pethidine with my first. Didn’t make me drowsy, didn’t help with the pain.

Honestly OP.. Considering you've already had a baby and decent delivery times id go for pethidine.

No waiting around for it..(and less potential to be told no as too far along/progressing fast ) . Midwife can give it you quickly rather than waiting for.. It made me feel pleasantly drunk... Made much more copable.

Gave birth stood up using bed for support.. Baby was delivered very quickly so a little sleepy but fine.

I had a low dose epidural so I was aware of the contractions but they didn't hurt, and I was able to stay mobile and use the toilet. Fucking awesome.

EPIDURAAAALLLLL!!!!!!

I had both during a 36 hour labour. I was high as a kite with pethidine- could feel the contractions but too high to register the pain, managed to sleep a bit but not in a restful way. Epidural was great and did manage to get some good chunks of sleep, it did slow my labour down though but I felt much more in control than with the pethidine

I had pethidine with my first and felt really out of it. My last pregnancy was twins and so I got an early epidural and it was lovely. I labour quickly though lots of back to back contractions. With my second the second stage was 10 minutes! So for me an epidural slowed things down and got rid of the pain it was much better. Wore off quickly afterwards.

I had pethidine and ended up sleeping for about 2/2.5 hours. Woke up in time to push!