Epidural - Advantages and Disadvantages

[MissKhan1990]

Hi, All

I am currently 31 weeks pregnant and thinking ahead of what options l have in terms of pain relief during labour.

I have heard lots of conflicting information about epidurals. I would like to know what have other peoples experience been of epidurals.

Thankyou

I had an epidural with my first. Never felt a single contraction (which was what I wanted) just had really bad backache before the epidural.
I could also still push. My babies head got stuck so ended up in theatre with forceps but that could easily have happened anyway.
Plainly and simply the advantage is pain relief. Friends who didnt have one have said it was agonising although I know a few women who said it wasn't too bad. It wasn't something I wanted to take a chance with!
The numbness in the legs is odd but only takes s few hours to wear off I think.

Epidural is amazing! I don't know wtf possessed me into going all the way up to nearly 8cm! Next time I'll definitely make sure I have one before. The only two negative points is maybe me trying to push wasn't in sync with my body hence why I needed some help to get the baby out and that your feet swell like hell and you must wear those surgical socks. Other than that, I thanked the NHS when I had it done that's how grateful I was!

I forgot to add, I think if I didn't have the epidural done, I would have probably felt traumatised which would have affected me mentally which ultimately would have impacted on me being able to care for the baby and perhaps bond as I was in soooo much pain. My pain threshold is pretty high but my labour was horrific.

I didn’t have one for either of my births, I wasn’t overly opposed to it but I didn’t like the idea of not being able to move around.

My first I got to the hospital 2.5 hours before he was born and used gas for a big, pushed for 25 minutes kneeling against a bean bag. No stitches, could have gone home that afternoon but I asked to stay in a night because I had no idea what to do with a baby (in terms of breastfeeding support etc).

My second I got to hospital 45 minutes before he was born and had a water birth which I couldn’t have done if I had an epidural, 5 minutes of pushing, no stitches and out that afternoon. No drugs because no time.

Wouldn’t change a thing about either of my births.

I didn't have one for either birth and yes, it was not pleasant to go through it without, but I coped despite being a massive wuss generally. I didn't have one because DM advised against one- she had one with me which didn't work, put her leg to sleep and (she claims) gave her back ache that prevented her sleeping the way she preferred pre-pregnancy for the rest of her life. She swore by gas and air and a TENS machine and that's what she had with her second DC, who she said she had a much better labour with. Worked well for me, too.

I was very anti-epidural before I went into labour. A back to back labour meant that 8 hours in I was begging for an epidural. Was horrendous getting it in, took 6 attempts but my god the relief after it was in and started working. My labour was quite long and I had to be told when to push but I couldn't actually feel any pain once the epidural was in. Just a lot of pressure when pushing but I couldn't say it was painful.
The only downside is that several years on I occasionally get a very sharp pain in my back at the point where the needle went in. It's a painful ache that can take my breath away, but doesn't even come close to the pain of my labour before I had the epidural so if I had to do it again, I would get the epidural every time.

Amazing, loved it, thank god for modern medicine

I will add though, my daughter was facing back to back and laying transverse, so I had awful back contractions and an epidural cannot numb the pain of back contractions.

I wanted just gas and air but put in my notes that if things got complicated and I got put on syntocin it was induced I'd want an epidural for the stronger contractions. I did get put in syntocin for failure to progress (the baby moved into a bad position) so I requested the epidural. I started with an on demand one where I could press a button for more or not press it to get more feeling back. This was good and I was on wireless monitoring so I could move about a bit. When they got concerned about the baby's heart rate they put a full epidural in and I could no longer move it feel anything at all below the waist. I had ventouse to deliver the baby. I coukd walk about 20 minutes after the birth but was still a bit numb. It was fine getting the epidural and it was brilliant pain relief that didn't make me confused or the baby sleepy. I would have it again in the same situation but would prefer just gas and sir and a pool birth. I would have liked to feel the contractions and know when to push.

I had one just at the end for forceps and it worked well.

Had really bad itching all over for about 48 hours afterwards which they said was most likely a reaction to the epidural drugs.

Positives:
• pain went

Negatives:
• wore off at 10cm when they asked me to lie on my side & it was horrendous. They managed to top it up though.
• labour was longer & baby came out with breathing difficulties - harder to push as can’t feel anything
• cannula in hand was awkward and didn’t help breastfeeding
• catheter required

I have had one with, one without and I have no plans to have an epidural again.

I had one with my first birth and it was great. For many years afterwards I swore I'd never give birth without one!
I can't think of any downsides except maybe that I was in hospital for slightly longer than I would have been otherwise (6-12 hours). This was 15 years ago and the dosage was strong and I couldn't walk for a while.

It took me 14 hours to get from 5cm dilated to 8cm dilated. After that epidural was absolute bliss! No downsides for me.

I had an epidural after labouring for 10 hours on a hormone drip with a back to back baby without dilating more than 2cm.

For me, it was amazing. Before labour I would have preferred to avoid an epidural (concern over stalling labour), but it was the right choice for me. My midwife explained that because I was so early in the process after so many hours of contractions she felt I would struggle to have the stamina to push if I didn’t have pain relief. The pain of the contractions was an absolute brick wall at that point and I knew I had potentially hours ahead of me, so I agreed.

It meant I could sleep a little, and it saved me from the exhaustion and insurmountable pain of back to back contractions.

In the end my labour never really progressed (I never did get beyond 4cm dilated) and I had an emergency c section, and I’m so glad that I wasn’t experiencing labour pains for the hours between the epidural and the c-section as it would have exhausted me and have been for nothing.

My advice would be to keep an open mind - you may not need it, but the option is there if you do. It’s just one more thing in the arsenal of tools we have to make labour as safe and straightforward as possible these days.

I work in obstetric theatres. IME it's quite common to see people with two stickers in the anaesthetic book. One for having the epidural placed, and a second for when they come to theatre. I completely get why people have one though. My Mum was extolling the virtues of hers when she had my siblings and I.

Not wanting to see my colleagues (much as I love them!) and avoid a Caesarean or other intervention was a large part of why I ultimately didn't want an epidural. I felt I was already enough at risk already (high BMI and early induction) for me. I also consider myself to have a very high pain threshold. Plus there was a whole range of other pain killer options to explore before I would consider an epidural. Which I 100% would if I wasn't coping.

As it ended up, while I came close to asking for one (5cm and on the drip). I opted to try diamorphine first instead, which was enough to see me to 10cm and baby out with no issues.

That was me though. Only you know how well you can tolerate pain, and nobody knows how well they will cope with labour until it's happening.