Epidurals and VBAC?

[pollyblue]

Just a quick query - is it possible to have an epidural during a VBAC? A friend has said no, as you need to maintain sensation in case your scar 'blows'. Can anyone tell me for certain?

thanks lulumama, might be after your help as things continue, have seen lots of your useful advice before. I put in a request for my notes from dds birth today so should be clued up by the time i get to speak to the consultant. Meanwhile i'm working my way through the various vbac threads on here.

there is a support thread for VBACcers with loads of really excellent links to research and statistics that is really worth a look.

do you have any idea of why you had a c.s last tiem?

went to 42 weeks and then had low amniotic fluid, induction was recommended and started with prostin on the friday night, dd reacted badly to the prostin with unreactive HB and decelerations, they gave me 2 more gel treatments and then broke my waters on sunday morning, heartbeat was mainly stable but dropping every so often, they then decided to do a synto drip at around 4pm on sunday, went in to active labour by about 7pm then at around 9pm a midwife covering the break of my midwife upped the drip and disappeared, HB dropped to 70bmp and stayed there for a while, uterus was hyper stimulated so pretty much one continuous contraction by this point, they tried to attach a probe to dds head to assess oxygen but couldn't get it on so then decided a CS was the only option. So I guess it was down to distress of baby rather than failure to progress. I was in the delivery room for 3 days and had PPH lost about 1000ml... dd taken to special care having inhaled meconium, all in all a horrific experience although I know lots of people have it worse!
have ended up giving my birth story on someone else's thread sorry for the waffle!

sounds like a difficult and traumatic birth.

so waht if someone else had it worse? you had a hard time too

sounds like a classic cascade of intervention

with you also suffering side effects from the prostin and the synto , hyperstimulation is a known possible issue

were your dates correct?

all things being equal, why would things not go better this time, a spontanoues start to labour is your best chance of a succesful HBAC

have you considered havign a doula

I actually had planned a home birth and wanted expectant management, fairly sure the dates were right but because of the risks due to the low fluid they said a homebirth would no longer be possible and they recommended the induction. Am definitely thinking of a doula this time. Are you aware of any doulas in west yorks area?

have you had a look on doula UK find a doula service.. or even start a thread on here asking for one? i only know more local ones and some in london.