Midwives say women should pay for epidurals

[TheDullWitch]

At least £500 a baby it says here

Just heard this on the Wright Stuff.
Bllcks Bllcks and more Bllcks!!!
I don't think I'd have coped without mine. I managed 7 hours without one so I think I deserved it!!

what crap!! I had 3 - couldn't have managed without, I may have been done for GBH if not available!!!

I didn't have an epidural, but don't like the idea of women's choice being restricted in this way. Am also curious as to whether some/many of the women had an epidural because the labour was long/difficult/painful and therefore more likely to need intervention in any case. Diamorphine can also slow labour down/lead to medicalised intervention - but because this is a straightforward jab to administer, rather than requiring an anaesthetist, there seems to be little interest in looking at whether diamorphine use should be restricted.

So only rich women will be able to have epidurals?

hmm, would i have got a refund for the 2 that didn't work in my first labour?

If they could see what I was like without one they'd pay ME to have one!

That's crap! I was in such terrible pain w/DD1 I was fainting. Turns out she was face up w/her hand tucked up by her ear and I needed forceps to get her out. Hate to think about labouring for as long as I did until they gave me some relief.

I didn't have epidurals for a lot of reasons but both my Births were very quick.
TBH, i can see the resoning behind lessening the need for forceps and ventouse but i gave Birth in less than 4 hours both times. My sister was in laboure for over 20!

BUT the very wrong issue here is taht women with no money won't have a choice if they want a baby!

Well I think my epidural in my first labour stopped my labour and caused my emergency section and dd1's alarmingly non existent heartbeat.

Didn't bother with my second with dd2 (even though I was bellowing for one!) and my labour was much better, if painful.

I do think they are handed out far too easily. They should use the £500 to pay for more one on one care with midwives imo.

If women had proper midwife care - one to one - and were taught how to deal with pain without huge needles in their spinal cord, maybe they wouldn t need them.

But now everyone has plastic surgery and botox and won't suffer a moment of inconvenience in their lives, let alone pain, no one is going to tough out labour.

ha oliveoil they certainly don't give them out easily ime - try being induced without one! i was refused by loony midwife and was too idiotic to insist. emergency cs cost rather more in the end...

I would like to know what would happen under that system if the epidural failed. I have only had one attempt at an epidural, when I was labouring with dd. I spent most of the labour trying to convince medical staff that the epidural wasn't working (as if it wasn't obvious that I was still in pain!) I wish I hadn't bothered with it as it was very stressful whilst the idiot anaesthetist was trying to put the line in, and it was very irritating having to "prove" I was still feeling pain. And in the end, I managed with no pain relief at all!

relief of pain IS a "medical reason".

Why should we 'tuff out labour'?? if it is available then why should we not take it? one uses the pill, ultrasound, formula milk etc now it is available!!!!

rant rant

also aren't we all meant to aspire to natural, at home waterbirths these days?

BTW no intervention for 1st 2 epidurals, only ventouse for twins with third epidural, and thank god for it ( actually they make you have it for twin labour) as ds2 got stuck and they had to drag him out lifeless.

if this doesn't get aloha back i don't know what will!!!

I was encouraged to have mine as DS was stuck and it would be 'easier' to use forceps rather than have a CS. I know which I would have prefered. I was up and about as soon as the epidural wore off. The woman in the next bed had a CS and couldn't move for 4 days!!

Hmm, I would recommend that every midwife who thinks epidurals are "too easy" should trying enduring the contractions that syntocinon brings on without an epidural.

Surely elective caesareans are far more costly to the NHS than epidurals, perhaps we should start charging for those too? (I don't really think that, just think this is the thin end of the wedge).

Sure epidurals get rid of pain but they also cause labour to arrest, complications to set in and tears to be more frequent and serious. And, of cause, are the reason there are so many emergency caesareans. Labour pain is not like other pain. It is not because something is wrong with your body. It is normal. And if it can be endured - which it can t always - the mother is likely to recover quicker and have less lasting medical problems. But for a woman to get through labour, she needs a wonderful, supportive sympathetic midwife all to herself.

I don't know of any other area of the NHS where people are expected to put up with pain and just get on with it. Will they be charging for G&A next??

I thought midwives were meant to support women, not punish them? Anyone who has such a nasty attitude to their patients - or such a fundamental misunderstanding of the founding ethics of the NHS - should be drummed out of the profession IMO.

I didn't have an epidural, btw.

I would certainly charge women for elective caesareans in which there are no health grounds. Why should my old mum wait for her knee operation because some young, fit woman wants to pencil her birth conveniently into her filofax?

This would be scandalous ! You could only get pain relief if you could afford it. I was induced with dd and having an epidural was the best thing I did. I didnt need any intervention.