Forceps with an epidural that hasn't worked

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I'm just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience at all? My birthplan went completely out of the window. My waters had meconium, after around 30 hours of contractions I was given an induction drip as I was dilating too slowly at which point I was advised to have an epidural.

When the anesthetist did the block of ice test I kept saying I could feel it and rated the sensation of cold as a 9/10 everywhere. They advised me to lie on my side and said they would come back later but never did! The epidural didnt seem to make any difference, I can only assume it dulled the pain slightly as the contractions only got slightly worse while on the drip? My not so lovely midwife then proceeded to physically take the gas and air out of my hands as she said I didn't need it! My partner grabbed this back for me! I kept telling the midwife i didnt feel pain free but she wouldn't really engage with me at all!

A few hours later I kept saying I had intense pressure and asking when I would be examined. The midwife kept saying not until six hours had passed. When the doctors visited on the rounds they asked the midwife why I hadn't been examined in so long at which point she said something about shift change over and rolled her eyes when she turned around. Doctors insisted I was examined and I was 10cms. After pushing for 40 minutes I was taken to theatre for forceps delivery where I was given an epidural top up once again with the ice test I kept saying I can feel it and said surely I shouldn't be able to?

This top up definitely did nothing as soon as the doctor made the episiotomy cut I screamed and couldn't keep my bum down on the trolley. Gas and air was put over my face and I had another doctor holding me down at my chest. To top it all my placenta was manually removed which was just as painful! I could even still feel the stitches afterwards and my husband said even at this point my face was flinching at each stitch.

The next day I saw the midwife I had for my first part of labour and said an epidural wasn't what I imagined. That's when she told me my experience was completely wrong and the epidural must not have been working! She advised me to make a complaint via Pals. ( I haven't done this yet).

I've had a debrief where to add insult it's been noted in my records that "patient was comfortable and epidural pain relief was sufficent". The records also don't give a reason for the manual removal of the placenta. It had only been 15 minutes after labour before this happened.

I'm feeling a bit screwed over but also wondering do people generally still feel pain during a forceps delivery? Did the doctors really not notice the level of pain I was in? After watching countless episodes of one born every minute in pregnancy I thought a forceps delivery looked relatively painless! Mine was nothing like this!

Can I ask other people's experiences of forceps / epidurals? Had anyone had the placenta removed manually and what were the reasons given?

I am so sorry this happened to you. As a midwife, if I have a woman who has an epidural fail - after I have tried the usual things to try and get it to work I would call the anaesthetist back so they could try some different things or to resite if necessary.

If going to theatre for an assisted delivery, in my trust they usually will site a spinal if the epidural is not working. If the baby was in severe distress a pudendal block can be used and usually working within 2 minutes but this does not sound like the case for you. I have never in 6 years seen a woman being held down for this.

You were failed by so many people and it makes me so sad for you and ashamed that so many HCPs led to this. Your midwife should have been your advocate. Your anesthetist is the ones who should tell the obstetrician that your Analgesia is sufficient to go ahead with the procedure and the obstetrician should have recognised and stopped when it was obvious you were in pain.

I don't even continue with vaginal examinations if a woman is in pain. I get them gas and air. I will stop a doctor suturing if the woman is in pain through if and ensure that they get the pain relief needed.

In regards to the manual removal I would say that the obstetrician probably got bored waiting for it. Unfortunately I have seen that before but they don't tend to tell anyone they are about to do it. They use the guise that the woman is bleeding too heavily and they need it out ect (sometimes true) but impossible to prove it isn't true. They should get your consent for it as in my trust we then give you 3 doses of IV antibiotics and 5 days of oral antibiotics. It is an increased infection risk and as someone who personally has had a manual removal I actually found it very traumatic too (and I had a good working spinal).

I would say I do sometimes strongly recommend taking away the gas and air for the pushing stage if the head isn't coming as women can become very high and not push. I advise it to start with and many listen and have only actually taken it away once as the head was very low and the babies heart rate wasn't great and I knew a few good pushes baby was out. I apologised so much afterwards as I felt terrible but thankfully she understood why.

You should 100% complain. So many people involved and letting this happen when so many witnessed it means it must have become a culture in that hospital. It needs investigation.

As well as PALs also look into:

nationalmaternityvoices.org.uk/

They listen to the voices and experiences from your area and will be able to note any themes they find.

Congratulations on your baby. It is OK not to he OK. I'm sure you will get many people say "as long as baby is healthy" but that's not all that matters. You matter. Seek help and support as needed. Lots of birth trauma groups out there. Happy to answer anything if you want to message me. All the best.

Absolutely need to complain, I had forceps and spinal block and literally felt nothing. My sister had a similar experience with a c section having felt it all and experienced trauma after and was actually compensated a 5 figure sum. No one should have to go through what you have!

Oh my gosh OP this sounds horrific. My first labour went on and on and eventually I asked for an epidural when they wanted to put me on the drip to increase contractions (forgot the name) probably due to it being such a late stage
of delivery it didn’t fully help and only took the edge off. I don’t remember the forceps delivery being too painful but honestly at that point it was all a daze. I remember that for stitching up afterwards the epidural wasn’t enough and I had a general. What you went through sounds truly awful and definitely complain to PALS! If it’s any help my further three deliveries got quicker and my last was born in triage

I had an epidural and episiotomy/forceps, although when in theatre I had a full spinal incase I needed a section. But whilst I had just the epidural, I was examined, had my waters broken and got to 10cm and didn't feel a thing. When I did the ice test it didn't feel cold until it was almost at my boobs! Something was definitely wrong with yours and I would 100% complain, you shouldn't have had that experience

That’s horrendous, I’m so sorry. I had a failed epidural and a forceps delivery with my first but the difference is they believed me that it was only working on half my body, so they gave me a spinal block. They couldn’t get the needle in the right place for the block and had to call the consultant anaesthetist in from home and it took forever - they were about to just put me under a GA and do a c-section when finally they got the spinal to work and proceeded to deliver with high forceps. But there was no question of proceeding without pain relief. You poor thing, def complain

I had epidural and forceps and didn't feel it at all I'm so sorry you went through this OP. Please do report to PALS, I did for something that I wasn't happy about it and it gave me some comfort.

Also I would ask for a birth reflection with your hospital, there should be a contact for this on the hospital website and also ask for a copy of your maternity notes then you can have these to hand when the midwife calls you and goes through your birth step by step. You can then see if this aligns with your truth, make notes on what was incorrect and then summarise all those points in your complaint to PALS.

Do also contact Birth Rights and copy them into correspondence with the hospital.

I had epidural and episiotomy (but luckily no need for instruments). I did not feel the episiotomy. I could feel the stitches being put in afterwards but only as a tugging sensation -zero pain.
Complain OP. The epidural didn’t work and they didn’t believe you when you told them it didn’t work. Especially combined with the glossing over everything in your notes, this is not an acceptable way to mothers during childbirth.

On my eldest I had a forceps delivery under epidural. It was horrendously painful experience and I felt every stitch going in afterwards to repair the episiotomy and tear. I kept asking how much longer it was going to take. Both the Dr and my ex were like you have an epidural it’s fine. I think for me the epidural partially worked as in one side was more numb then the other.
After delivery of my second child I went to theatre to get stitched up under a block. Leaving baby with DH. I had no pain being stitched up that time thankfully. I did not go back to same hospital for my second baby.
So many of us women experience birth trauma. It can take time to come to terms with it. Mind yourself OP. Do make a complaint if your up to it.

You definitely should complain, I'm so sorry you went through this.
I had forceps with my first. No epidural and it was horrific. I had local anaesthetic only and I could still feel it. The doctor told me 'you can't feel that'. I didn't complain, I wish I had.

With my second my placenta had to be removed manually, I did have an epidural for that and I couldn't feel anything at all.

So sorry to hear about your experience. You should complain. It's also terrible that they falsified the records.

I had forceps and ventouse and no epidural. It was done in a rush as my son was in distress with the cord was round his neck twice. I guess it wasn't pain free but it was an emergency and I was just glad my DS was alive.

Dear God. This is horrific. Please please complain. This is absolutely unacceptable. I'm so sorry you were treated that way

Firstly I am so so sorry you had this experience. Definitely keep going down the PALS route as this experience should not happen to any woman.

In answer to your question - I didn't feel a thing when I had an epidural with my first baby. I had an episiotomy, ventouse cap delivery and stitches and never felt a thing.

I was induced on the drip and had epidural which worked on one side. I topped it up before forceps and didn’t feel them or episiotomy. I’m sorry this happened to you and agree maybe you need to complain. We know many maternity services are currently inadequate in places and often women aren’t listened to.

I had episiotomy and forceps , my epidural didn't work fully.
No one believed me , hideous experience.
I was shaking with shock and pain.

I had an epidural and couldn't feel a thing. I had to have an emergency c-section rather than forceps, but again, I couldn't feel a thing. What you went through sounds horrific, the epidural definitely didn't work for you, you shouldn't of felt anything....certainly not the stitches.

I had epidural which didn’t work. Topped up several times yet nothing. Fentanyl, pethedine, nothing worked. Rushed to theatre due to Fetal distress and had spinal block still nothing. Could feel the ice spray full on. Had another spinal block and finally that worked. Everyone involved was very kind and understanding tho.
Turns out that due to my hyper-mobility in general I need much higher dose of anaesthesia or analgesic. They missed that crucial bit of info in my file.

I had no choice but induction & forceps with no epidural or spinal block. It was sheer agony, and i was encouraged to see PALS which I did, they simply wrote up a report and nothing more happened. I'm so sorry you went through a distressing labour as well.

I had epidural, forceps, episiotomy on first baby. Husband said it was voilent birth, baby literally wrenched out of me (was prepped for section) and placenta manually removed but I FELT NOTHING. You shouldnt have either. Please please complain.

Take your NHS trust to court

Women cannot and should not be treated like this it is disgusting

That's horrific. Definitely complain. Can't believe that drs still treat labouring women like this in the 21st century.

My epidural was wearing off when I had a forceps delivery and I remember howling like a wild animal when I felt those huge tongs go right up inside me. Obviously at that point, they realised I could feel it but it was too late by then.

Absolutely barbaric and it's why I opted for the midwife led unit with nothing but gas and air the next time.

Unfortunately many doctors and midwives don't know this. I never learnt this at uni or on placement as a student - it was only due to my own experiences (lots of attempts with a spinal and dental local anesthetic never working) that I researched and found it out. Few midwives of doctors that I speak to about it actually understand hypermobility or EDS

My first child was a failed ventouse and rotational forceps delivery, during which the only pain relief I was given was gas and air, and even that was taken off me after the ventouse failed.

I almost bled to death afterwards too.

I can’t believe this shit is still happening 20 years later. I’m so sorry.

No distress in baby, but I’d been labouring for over 40 hours, for the last 10 hours I had been either ignored by the MW or she was shouting at me, I had been refused pain relief multiple times, I was shaking (not shivering, shaking), my waters had broken around 36 hours prior to the pushing stage.

A student midwife came on shift, took one look at me/my chart and came back with a Doctor. She got bollocked by the MW for this.

I was physically held down for the forceps part because they were dragging me off the bed, the MW repeatedly screeched at me to “hold still”.

She continued to speak to me like shit after baby was delivered, and again, the student went back out to get the Doctor when the bleeding was out of control. She bollocked the student again.

My mother kept disappearing and it was months later that she told me it was because she was vomiting and convinced we were both going to die. She’s had 4 children, including twins, (Twin B was a footling), had been at the births of her sisters 3 children, so not unfamiliar with labour/birth.

The student helped me contact PALS a few days later whilst I was still on the ward due to the injuries I received (she came to find me) and during my debrief, it became clear my notes had been rewritten/tampered with

I had a spinal block, episiotomy and forceps and felt nothing. However I’ve been left with some damage.
I’m sorry your experience was not pain free.