Epidural advice

[jdr1234]

I am 15 weeks pregnant with baby number 1 and we were going down the private delivery route however I am now thinking it is not necessary given how great the NHS seem to of been so far. So we are now thinking to save the money and just pay for private after care (private section of NHS hospital after delivery) and have a normal delivery...however I have one concern...
I am really worried they will not be as forth coming with pain relief and will even if I am not far enough along hold off on giving the epidural. If I tell them this is my concern prior to delivery would this help and has any one had any experience where this has happened or am I just worrying for no reason. I know the epidural is expensive so have heard rumours they don't like to give them in certain hospitals but have never heard anyone actually being denied an epidural if they are not too far dilated....advice please??

My understanding is that you can get an epidural if you are over 4cm dilated but not before.

I would definitely recommend you have a chat with your m/w about pain relief, mine is planning on speaking to me about it nearer the time.
I think I had one within 30 mins of requesting it with DD. It is administered by an anaesthetist so sometimes you do have to wait a little bit if they are not available, but I believe if requested they wouldn't refuse it unless you were too far along, but maybe it does vary.

If you are paying for private delivery do you mean delivery in private hospital or just private antenatal care? Not sure where u are, I'm in ni, but if it's just antenatal care but nhs delivery then just you obstetric care would be private and anaesthestic would be nhs being private would be no guarantee of getting an epidural.

dh is an anaesthetist and refuses to treat private pts any differently to nhs, despite efforts of obstetrics, he isn't getting paid privately. if it's private hospital delivery would assume this isn't an issue.

I had two epidurals. First time I arrived at the hospital at 8cm, wanted one immediately and got it within 30 minutes iirc. 2nd time asked for one at 7cm but the anaesthetist was busy with an emergency so ended up waiting a couple of hours before they were free to come and do it - this was about 3am so not sure if they have less staff overnight.

I was worried the 2nd time that it would be too late to get the epidural by the time they could do it but luckily it wasn't.

should have added if delivering nhs the ability to get an epidural may more likely be impacted by anaesthetist dealing with emergency sections, beds not available on delivery suite, etc. Might be worth also asking if there is dedicated anaesthetic cover for maternity, if there isn't then if you deliver out of hours, anaesthetist could be covering number of other specialties which often take priority over epidurals.

I had one when only 1-2 cm dilated ( had been in two days already and was being induced) and got one straight away. I wouldn't worry- during labour the care from NHs was amazing as was the care afterwards. Personally I wouldn't have wished for better care and certainly wouldn't be paying for it as IMO there is no need. Good luck!