spinal vs epidural?

[tgamble13]

am seeing our consultant on monday to see if our baby is still breeched and if so will be booked for an elcs for the following week. i know they will probably discuss pain relief options and was wondering if any of you have views/experiences of either or both spinal/epidural?

If you have a section you will have a spinal. Its pretty much the same thing though goes in a slightly different space in your back. Epidurals work better on an infusion so are used for labour as they can be continuously given, which is needed when you don't know how long you need it for.

A spinal is a denser block and shorter lasting as its a one off injection.

As above, the only option is a spinal. Don't worry though, I loved my elective section :)

oh I thought you had a choice. thank you ladies. how did you find the wear off of the spinal and do they still put in a cathether? and how quick were you mobile again?

It took a few hours to wear off. It's weird because your legs gradually come back, so you can wiggle your knees, then ankles, then finally toes!
You have a catheter and I was mobile within 24 hours.

I have had both, a topped up epidural for an emcs with ds and a spinal with dd who was an elcs. The spinal is much better and as other posters have said I was up and about within 24 hours, as soon as the catheter was removed. Just for info, my dad has also had a double hip replacement under a spinal, he thought it was great as well! :)

Unless you are in labour already with an epidural you will be given a spinal.

An epidural remains in place and can be topped up an spinal is a one off dose but with lower rate of complications.

The meeting with the anaethetist pre op will answe all your questions and be very interesting if you are most like me and had a chatty anaesthetist who was happy to explain everything whenever I said "so what do you do if that happens?

Much better than i had imagined.
I had spinal at approx 11.30am. They kept catheter in over night (just in case they said even though I really wanted it out). I was walking at 11pm.
Good luck!

I had a spinal as baby was stuck & needed forceps & episiotomy. spinal was amazing. I loved the feeling & instant numbness. heaven after 4 hours of pushing :-)

I had an epidural for 1st CS and a spinal for my next 2. Recovered a lot quicker from the spinal although I did have a bad reaction to the diamorphine they put in the spinal which made me really sick for about 2 hours so you may want to ask about that!

I has a CS yesterday and I had a mixture if the epidural and spinal. It was great and I was able to walk with hours of the CS. I was able to breast feed in the recovery room.

I would differently recommend the mixture.