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 epidural with first - was great, gave me chance to rest and wore off enough to be able to feel how to push well. Second time I opted for epidural due to going on drip for induction. Unfortunately it failed and only numbed one side which was a bit disheartening. You're told this is a risk and a not uncommon one at that so it wasn't that it was a complete surprise but I did then wish I hadn't bothered at all as was feeling through one side but feeling a bit limited in movement because the other half was numb. I decided against pethidine in both my labours as had read a lot about people feeling very 'out of it' with it. Sole people seem to enjoy that feeling, but I know I very much don't like feeling very out of it so figured it wasn't for me!

Ask the anaesthetist about a walking / mobile epidural as a half way house

OP have you had opioids before? I react very badly to them so pethidine was a very bad idea for me, if you’ve never had any opioids before I would step cautiously. Epidural was great pain was, but it does lead to a statistical increase in instrumental deliveries which I can’t say I recommend AT ALL.

I had to make this decision a few days ago when I gave birth to DS2.

With DS1 I missed my shot at an epidural. My labour was badly managed (and traumatic) but short. They gave me pethidine near the end - this was a big mistake. I kept falling asleep in between contractions, even if these were only a few seconds apart. I became disorientated and even more upset than I was already. I blamed the pethidine, but it was the management of ny labour that was to blame.

DS2ms birth followed exactly the same pattern but it was well managed by a lovely midwife and as such it was a completely different experience. I had been keen to have the epidural beforehand, but my midwife explained the benefits of pethidine (relaxes you and helps to open your cervix and can therefore shorten labour) and possible disadvantages of epidural (I was desperate to avoid a catheter and the IV/constant monitoring/nature of the medication itself means that you can’t move about).

I started with gas and air then decided to combine that with pethidine when it got worse. Pethidine is super quick - just a jab. It doesn’t take the pain away but it makes the pain seem less important and upsetting. It’s hard to describe. I did get a bit woozy but not in a bad way and I never felt out of control. Baby was able to feed straight away.

I’m really glad I didn’t go for the epidural in the end.

I hated pethidine. I was totally out of it during labour, hallucinating (I could see my contractions as musical notes?!). It didn’t take the pain away I just didn’t care about it.

Baby was born sleepy, had trouble feeding and ended up in NICU for 5 days. I’m hoping to not have anything this time as I want an active labour and want to move around.

I hated pethedine. It made me drowsy between contractions but did nothing for the pain so I felt like I had no recovery time in between.

I dilated much quicker than expected (from “not even started luv” to pushing in half an hour) and the pethedine made it very, very difficult to push effectively and that part ended up going on far too long. It shouldn’t be given late in labour. That may be something to discuss if you have short labours. I was very lucky not to end up with a Caesarian.

@RavenclawsRoar

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!

I was the same! Made me feel off my face and couldn't speak

Was awful

Epidural.