'Mobile' epidurals

[MamaLazarou]

I have seen lots of these on the tv show 'Portland Babies'. They look lovely - mobility during labour and ability to stand/squat to deliver, but with minimum pain.

Are these widely available, or must I become rich and famous within the next 6 months?

I was keen on having one with ds, and asked the mw about it. She said at our hospital (St George's Tooting) all their epidurals were supposed to give some kind of movement to allow you to be in the optimal birth position. Never got to find out though as I ended up with a cs.

Mobile epidurals are great. I had one with my son and I was able to move although I was a bit unsteady. I was able to give birth kneeling.

However a big problem is the obcession with continous monitoring that many hospitals insist on. I got told off for fidgetting and they tries to bully me into being on my back.

Reallytired, that's my biggest fear about going for a VBAC this time. I'm not due to have my chat with the consultant for a while, but I'm prepared to lay money on the fact that he/she will reassure me that monitoring will only be as necessary, then when it comes to being in labour, Oh! What a surprise, I'm strapped to a monitor lying on my back and being told off for attempting to stand up.

Sorry, I'll stop whingeing now!

Thank you all for your answers so far. Does monitoring become more of an issue with an epidural?

You can refuse to be continously monitored, but they will give you hell.

Looks like I will go back to the original plan of a home birth, then. No-one is bossing ME about during my labour! If anyone tries to make me do things I don't want to, I can just throw them out of the house.

Just wondering about the comment below...

"You can refuse to be continously monitored, but they will give you hell."

What if you give them hell?

So far, my consultants/midwives etc have seriously backed down when I yelled that they should shut their mouths and not tell me what to do and that if they didn't I would go out into the lobby and give birth in the carpark. Soon shut them up.

Reallytired, that's my worry. Effectively it's my first delivery so it's all going to be a bit new and scary to me. A friend of mine ended up with continuous monitoring in the same circs and was too scared to say anything as it was her first delivery too. Baby turned in the 7 hours she was on the monitor, had a failed forceps and ended up with an emcs

I had a mobile epidural and it was great. I ended up giving birth on a bed which was amazing - it basically became like a chair - supporting my legs, but with my body totally upright and with a rope hanging from the ceiling to pull down on, and the midwife crouching down below what what effectively a big hole - that was in Germany though..

It was a great compromise between monitoring (epidurals can affect your blood pressure quite dramatically, as well as either slow down or speed up the whole process) and a gravity-friendly position.

AT the end of the day, I took the view that the most important thing was a safely delivered baby and a minimally traumatic birth for me, so happily took every bit of monitoring going. To each their own

A drug free birth was not a possibility from the moment my pelvis started to separate (I have an underlying joint condition, as well as being overdue, induced and with baby's head at 41cm off the scale size-wise and the whole thing taking 2.5 hours so fast and furious). It also meant that the 'repairs' afterwards were utterly painless - I even remember thinking at that point that I would do it all agian quite happily...!

I know St Thomas's in London does mobile ones if you could get there...!

You have to be careful with mobile epidurals because a lot of them are not really mobile.
I asked for one having been told they were available, was given the ep and then told I couldn't get out of bed without 2 people to hold me up which, this being the NHS, there were not. 10 hours spent lying on the bed later I had a section. What a surprise.