Is it likely to arrive at the hospital and be "too late for an epidural"?

[Jamiki]

Hi, long story short, third pregnancy and have been scared of a painful delivery ever since DC2 was born 3.5yrs ago.

I feel as though I should be more on top of it third time around but I'm actually more scared. .

I've had two normal deliveries and my ob GP laughed when I asked if requesting an elective caesar was a possibility.

Any anecdotes will be eagerly devoured in terror.

I over did the Raspberry leaf tea. 3rd nearly born at home, an ambulance just got me to hospital. I used Gas and Air (hated it before) and knew there was no time for an epidural.

However a labour of less than 1 hour start to finish isn't that bad. One before was 16 hrs ish with epidural.

I would suggest you go and talk to a midwife though, as fear of pain can make pain worse. Maybe a hypno therapist could help (give you some triggers to control the pain).

Def discuss with your midwife. I had an emCS afer 2 VBs and found the VBs much easier to "get over", was much harder after a CS, wioth three children!

With second birth, I was too late for an epi but honestly, it was fine. It was quick and eyewateringly painful, but I felt very in control and it was so fast, it was over before I knew it (I only pushed for 5 mins!)

Do chat to your MW and she can suppor you

I agree re: fear of pain makes it worse - perhaps read the hypnobirthing book? also i read ina may gaskin's book "spiritual midwifery" and i was actually was LOOKING FORWARD to the birth by the time I'd read it a couple of times!

read the positive birth story thread too..... my birth story is there.

the truth is that i went to hospital very early so would have been in time for an epidural... except i was in such early labour mild contraction every 10 mins. i asked for the birth pool to be filled around 15 minutes before he was born but they said too early could i hang on for another 30 mins ... i imagine it would have been the same had i asked for epidural....

Oh Jamiki you poor thing. Without knowing your particular set of circumstances in your last labour it's hard to comment precisely, but my feelings are this;

Do you have a community midwife you can talk through your last birth experience with? If it was so bad that you're asking for an ELCS this time rather than go through a similar experience then it suggests some unresolved issues. It might be worth getting hold of your notes and asking for someone (The Head of Midwifery at your local hospital should be able to arrange for this) to go through with you what happened & why & whether you can do anything to prevent the same experience happening to you again. You never know, you might get your ELCS after all!

It is common I think to be a bit more anxious with subsequent labours. Certainly IME I knew what might be coming & was dogged by the feeling that I was gambling (i.e. I've had 1/2/3 healthy babies how lucky would I be to have another?), but I took steps to ensure that my subsequent labours didn't follow the pattern of the most horrible one that I had and so each one was different - none was as bad as my horrible first - but it was always there in the back of my mind. I made sure I had a midwife with me who knew my story & whom I trusted (we have good community midwives round here), so when I got scared I trusted her reassurances.

I don't know what else to say really. It's never too late for an epidural in theory, but they're only really of use to most labouring women in 1st stage (whilst your cervix is still dilating to 10cms), so if you arrive and you're 9cms dilated they may tell you that there's no point in one as by the time the anaesthetist gets to you you could be fully dilated and going into the pushing stage. However there are exceptions to every rule.

I would say revisit that last horrible labour. Examine what happened (if you can bear to) with the advantage of some distance and perspective. Then think of whether there's anything you can do to make sure that particular set of circumstances doesn't arise for you again.

HTH.

With DD 3 years ago I did this cd and it really helped me to be in control and not fear the birth. I can honestly say that I never felt scared of giving birth - and I worry about everything!!.

I did get to hospital and was told I was too late for an epidural (was 8cm) but I managed it and was glad afterwards as I was in the bath eating toast and drinking tea not long after she was born! With DS I was induced and thought that I would at least get my epidural this time should I need it , but he had other ideas and when I was examined at 5cm I said that I would like my epidural now please, they wheeled me to delivery but DS decided to make an appearance only 30 mins later! But again, although was more painful than with DD as I had been induced, I got though it and once I had fed DS and we'd had a cuddle the MW ran me a bath with lavender oil in and I was having a lovely soak!

I hope that you manage to get someone to have a really good talk with and discuss your options, rather than laughing as your GP did. It doesn't give you much faith in them, does it, when they dismiss your fears like that?

Good luck with it all

Thanks ladies, good advice, I will chase up that cd as it appears to have some popularity on MN.