Epidural, second births and interventions

[Scroggleboggle]

Hello everybody! I have just read the thread on transition and come out in a bit of a cold sweat. With my DD I was induced, had a 30 hour labour, pethidine, g&a (useless), and an epidural. Towards the end I was begging the midwife to keep it topped up although the doctor was telling her not to so that I could feel to push! DD was eventually born with forceps (she was back to back and I had fibroids, which the midwife said afterwards can make the pain worse although I might just be a total wuss).

Anyway, I know that epidurals can raise the risk of interventions, but for my second birth, I am convinced I want one from the moment I walk into hospital right to the end! I don't want to feel to push and I am absolutely terrified of the pain and the whole idea of it!

I am pretty convinced that it wasn't the epidural that caused the interventions on its own last time, more the induction. The entire birth felt like it was managed on my behalf and my body did nothing AT ALL last time.

So what I want to know is, with second births, is the epidural as likely to cause interventions? Or will my body be a bit more efficient if you see what I mean, having done it once?

hi ya with my first birth i had to be induced i was 10 over due and on my birth plan i ahd said i wanted an epidural as soon as i felt pain well to cut a long story short when they actually belived me that i was in labour and it was not just gel pains i was 7 cm and had no time for an epidural. i did have pethidine though and thought it was great .
i had my ds wuth no help at all i pushed him out he was 8 pound 4 and had no stitches and felt great after .

when i found out i was pregnant again i said i would try a natural birth just gas and air an i did it !!
it was very intense but again had no stitches they did not even check if i was ready to push as they say your body knows excatly what it is doing the second time round.
i was in labour 12 hours with ds and dd was 3 hours .
my best friend had twins natural and she had an epidural and needed the suction cap to get the babies out needed cut and stitches my other friend had an epidural and also needed suction and stitches .

what im trying to say is that when an epidural is taken nearly all the time you will needed some interventions .

if i was you i would try to do it yourself and see how it goes dont rule out an epidural at all but see if you can cope without it . induction is very painful as i have done both going into labour yourself is far better .

i cleaned my whole house ran after my ds who is 2 and went to my midwife appointment at 6 when ds came home from work.
i dropped my son off as his nannys met my dh at hospital for appointment and i thought something was happening but was not sure .
when she examined me i was 5 cm got off the table waters broke and had dd at 8.50 so 2 hours 50 mins and it was all over

dropped ds off at nannnys at 5 and was back to get him the next day at 4 it was great .

hope this helps you

with first, I was 10 days overdue but went into labour the day before I was due to be induced. Very long labour so in the end I had everything as I wasn't dilating. When it was time for the second epi top-up the midwife said she there was no need as I was finally fully dilated and so would be ready to push. I felt little tbh, they had to tell me when contractions were coming to begin with, I had to be stitched up because of tear but no intervention. 2nd time round, I always thought I would want epi the moment I'd walk in, in the end just did it with g&a, as it wasn't a very long labour and I was terrified the epi would slow things down. It was very painful as obviously I hadn't felt the "pushing" and "burning" first time round, and in the end, I had to have episiotomy and ventouse as the baby was facing up!

so in my case I had no intervention with epidural, intervention without it!

i had epidural with both babies and was able to feel the need to push...not the pain but the build up of the contractions. didn't need any intervention (ds2 was an induction and 10lbs 8oz)

i think evryones labour and birth is different but i do think its easier next time round...i would never have got ds2 out if he had been my first baby

i can only get to about 4cm without pain relief...and g&a is not effective for me...i say i don't want any medals for bravery and i think actually the fear of the pain can slow down your labour

Scroggleboggle - a 30 hour induced labour is about as bad as it gets really. If you are not induced this time around you are likely to have a much more manageable labour, which is also likely to be a great deal shorter. You may well find you don't need an epidural to cope (though you might find you have a few moments of wanting one in transition!).

Re: second births, epidurals and interventions - my understanding is that there is not as strong an association between epidural analgesia and assisted births as there is with first births.

you sonud just like me scroggleboggle, im pg with my second child and am having real issues deciding what to plan for the birth (i know they never go to plan but thought id like to have some sort of idea about it)

i always knew id be a wimp giving birth and probley have everything i could with my frist ds and my labour and birth went like this-

induced at 12 days over, contractions started at 1pm coped ok till 11pm when was put on the drip contractions got so intense i had an epidural at midnight. then couldnt feel anything was fully dilated at 6.30am and ds was born at 7.30am without any intervention and no tearing.

it was a lovely labour and birth for me i was so more relaxed and it was a pain free pleasent experience for both me and dh. so going from my experience epidurals dont always mean intervention and that was with my first so im sure as they say second labours are generaly easiser going anyway so the chance of intervention should be less but obvioulsy you never know whats gonna happen.

i was thinking that i would want an epidural this time round as soon as i felt the first twinge but ive been thinking about it and talked to poeple and so many say their second births are so much easier and that they have coped fine without one that im thinking about going for it and tryinf for a natural waterbirth in hospital as ive heard lots of lovely waterbirth expeirences and not rulling out an epidural but as my midwife said alot of second births dont have time for them so thought id better plan for not having one so i dont get in a state about it if i cant.

so dont really know what im trying to say but id just keep and open mind and go with how you feel at the time.

I'd second M&Bumps mummy, keep an open mind.In my experience many women want an epidural early on after a difficult first labour, but regardless of which labour it is, an epidural before 4cm is associated with long labours and assisted delivery. On the other hand, continuous support in labour is associated with less pain, less intervention and greater maternal satisfaction so a really good birth partner, doula or midwife can make all the difference. We don't have to accept that total pain relief is the only way to a 'good birth', explore other options such as acupuncture, hypnotherapy or homeopathy in addition to a doula perhaps. If you have the money, it is well spent as you will never have this labour and delivery again and they can be wonderful experiences believe me. Good luck.

BTW, it is nothing to do with whether you are a wuss, or mard, or any of those negative things. It is everything to do with being induced and the way we make women labour. Most of it for the convenience of the care givers I'm afraid (and I speak as one of those care givers).

Thanks so much everybody for responding - I feel a bit better about it all now! I am totally totally embarrassed to admit that I'm not even pregnant (to my knowledge, although we are TTC)! Even though I didn't think my DD's birth affected me badly at the time, my excitement at the thought of hopefully getting pregnant again soon is kind of reduced by the thought of the actual birth! Pathetic! Thanks again!

I had similar experience to you with DS1 (but venteuse). With DS2 (15months later) I hoped that it would be easier. My waters broke spontaneously and I went into labour 12 hours afterwards. I managed to get to 4-5 cm with TENS but then requested an epidural. My midwife was a bit rubbish and ignored my request for analgesia and kept disappearing. She also slurred her words and kept bumping into things and now I'm convinced she was pissed. Unfortunately needed forceps as I kept passing out and DS2 distressed and at the end I felt everything. I can still hear my own screaming in my ears. Turns out the epidural fell out (I discovered this when the midwife came to remove it!). Everyone says it's easier 2nd time round and for the majority it is, but I had a shocker. The icing on the cake, is I now have a vaginal prolapse. Ho hum. I have 2 gorgeous boys so can't really complain but if there is a next time, I'm going to try and have an elective section. I'm good at growing babies and hope I'm good at looking after them but I'm rubbish at pushing them out! Sorry for sharing, not what you want to hear I'm sure but that was rather cathartic!

Hatehoovering - you are not rubbish at pushing your babies out. You managed to get them out despite having lots of barriers to a normal birth put in your way (crap care by the sound of it, inadeqate analgesia, probably very limited mobility). Sounds like a success story to me!

hatehoovering - same results here! I knew baby was't going to come out this time so I kept apologising for my rubbish pushing and asked them to get her out - really, they should have realised I coudn;t get her out as she was facing up, they only realised when she came out with the ventouse on her forehead!! I am seeing a gynea physio next week for the prolapse too, which all have agreed could have been avoided had they's listened to me telling them she was blocked, and checked her position

in saying that, plenty of women have very "pleasant" births!!