Talk to me about Epidurals...

[Normando91]

This has probably been asked and exhausted several times. But I’m a FTM and up until today I’ve been pretty relaxed about giving birth in a matter of weeks (35+1)

Today, someone asked me if I would be getting an epidural. I’ve always had the mindset that I would just take things as they come, if the pain becomes too much, I’ll have one. But then I started reading about them and fixating on the negative side effects- mainly women who have had back pain ever since...

So, what was your experience of an epidural?
Or if you didn’t get one, what did you do/have to manage the pain?

Had it more than once, found it great and had pain free straightforward labours and births. I actually had a nice relaxing nap during labour with my first. Would highly recommend.

Didn’t have one with the first (hypobirth) - didn’t felt I needed one, easy birth, 4 hours from start of labor to baby.

Second I needed one because DS2 needed close monitoring and possible intervention due to in utero complications so had one.

Blissful, slept through labor and woke to push. No other interventions.

Yes, go into it with an open mindset - I knew I could cope with pain but when pain turns into suffering is where I draw the line.

Good luck!

I have had an epidural and a spinal and would recommend 👍

I had one with my first baby and had the best experience! Was out after 24 hours too.

I'm going to have another when I go into labour with our twins in September.

I’ve had three, would recommend, no side effects.

Absolutely needed mine. I was also very ‘see what happens’ but waters went dramatically and pain went straight to 11 (I usually have a pretty high pain threshold!)

I would have one again if pain was like that second time around but it did slow things down and I wound up with a forceps delivery that I think I would have avoided if I hadn’t had the epidural (went to 6cm in 4 hours prior to it but then took 15 hours to get to 10cm - I assume due to being laid down rather than active). However my birth recovery was fine and I felt pretty much back to normal by my 6 week check, now 9 months PP and no issues since. I think remaining open minded is a good shout, tbh in the moment I asked for the epidural I didn’t care about future aches and pains, I’d have taken it either way!

@Normando91

This has probably been asked and exhausted several times. But I’m a FTM and up until today I’ve been pretty relaxed about giving birth in a matter of weeks (35+1)

Today, someone asked me if I would be getting an epidural. I’ve always had the mindset that I would just take things as they come, if the pain becomes too much, I’ll have one. But then I started reading about them and fixating on the negative side effects- mainly women who have had back pain ever since...

So, what was your experience of an epidural?
Or if you didn’t get one, what did you do/have to manage the pain?

Magic. Pure magic lol.

I had a really fast induced labour, the epidural helped slow it down and made me feel human again. I would definitely have it again. My policy on pain relief via my birth plan was that I wanted everything and would decline as I saw fit - so I had everything prearranged.

No side effects from mine.
I was also in mindset of trying without but it got too much, I would recommend 😂

I had one with my first baby. I was induced and put on the drip which I was fine with until my contractions tailed off and they turned the drip up. I was in agony. But after the epidural the pain completely went away and I napped until I had to push. It took forceps to get her out as she couldn't get out and I couldn't push properly.

Side effects: I'm a teacher so I find standing for a long time gives me a little bit of back ache but nothing massive and goes when sitting down.

I'm definitely not put off, I'm having twins in June and I will probably have one again if induced.

Take it as it comes, you might find you don't need it

Well when you start to experience how painful childbirth can be, you won't be giving a damn about possible side effects!

I had one and whilst it worked it was great but I was actually numb up to my collar bone which is far too high so they had to counteract it which also worked a bit too well and I started feeling contractions again. Then basically whatever they did it never got to the point of being pain free again and I relied on gas and air

But for the 2 hours it did work, it was bliss!

I had one and all was fine, no after effects.

It was on day 4 of induction and was having the drip which I heard was agony so wouldn't have that without epidural (and consultant agreed). I'd had enough of all the twinges and painful internal exams. They had said they were going to try to break my waters which would be off the scale painful!

Labour was fine, at one point I was getting some pains and the drip position needed adjusting which was quickly done!

Had one with our 1st as G&A was making me loopy, was a full induction with drip. It was awesome, I was able to walk within an hour of birth and had no lasting issues.
Asked for one with our 2nd but the anesthetis kept complaining that I wasn't bending far enough forward. It did bugger all, he'd got it in the wrong place so it was removed. Still no lasting issues from that.
3rd I asked for it but my midwife convinced me to have waters broken 1st, she was born 11 mins later so no time for it.
I had a spinal with our twins elcs, was up walking once on the ward (about 12 hours after surgery). No lasting issues after that either.

I think they really have to butcher you for there to be lasting issues, it always depends on who you get doing it and if you move during the procedure.

Dont want to scare you. Sometimes things become out of hand op and you dont end up with a choice anyways, so as good as it is going into your labour prepared dont get too hung up on it.

I had an emergency c section and ended up having epidural. Silly as it sounds since I didnt even consider my birth going that way I never thought about the after. After my epidural I suffered with horrendous mingranes which is apparently common as it can be liquid leaking from the spine. All the side effects aside though if there is one thing I wished I thought of was getting my living environment prepped for possibly having a c section. I know epidural can be given in natural birthing, but one thing I would say is be aware that you may not get your full sensation back for a while when it comes to your bladder (thanks to lovely catheters)

@Dollywilde

Absolutely needed mine. I was also very ‘see what happens’ but waters went dramatically and pain went straight to 11 (I usually have a pretty high pain threshold!)

I would have one again if pain was like that second time around but it did slow things down and I wound up with a forceps delivery that I think I would have avoided if I hadn’t had the epidural (went to 6cm in 4 hours prior to it but then took 15 hours to get to 10cm - I assume due to being laid down rather than active). However my birth recovery was fine and I felt pretty much back to normal by my 6 week check, now 9 months PP and no issues since. I think remaining open minded is a good shout, tbh in the moment I asked for the epidural I didn’t care about future aches and pains, I’d have taken it either way!

FTM mum to be here too and just wondering about your 'being laid down' comment. Does having an epidural mean you must be laid down? I know you're attached to a heap of things but are you not able to even be on all fours etc? Sorry if a stupid question!

Had one with both DC because i progress very slowly and it just gets too painful. The relief is nothing short of miraculous- i went from sobbing and shaking to completely comfortable and calm in the space of 15 minutes. Without it i probably would have needed an emergency section, but I went on to have succesful vaginal births without instrument assistance for both DC. If it gets bad, don't suffer unnecessarily.

With my first I had to be induced with the drip as labour started naturally but didn’t progress quickly enough and I had a high temperature etc etc. Before the drip I was coping fine- with the drip I lasted a few hours but then couldn’t cope and asked for an epidural. I really needed the relief and for that I loved it - BUT it has caused me a weird type of headache since and also my birth wasn’t great and ended in drama and lots of intervention. Obviously I don’t know what would’ve happened had I not had the epidural but I feel like I may possibly have not needed as much intervention had I not had one. I think the thing with epidurals is that they are amazing for instant pain relief , but just bear in mind that once you have one everything can get a lot more medicalised and in turn more stressful.
Second and third births I did hypnobirthing in advance. I cannot recommend this highly enough and wish I’d known about it with my first. Both of these births were as good as a birth can get I think. I had gas and air towards the end but it was so relaxed and just totally different to the first. You still have time to do some hypnobirthing if you wanted to. You can get the cds and books on amazon. Sorry for the essay!! Good luck with the rest of pregnancy:)

I had one with DC1 as like a pp I was on day 4 of failed induction (still less than a cm dilated) and the doctor advised he could break my waters but would be too painful to do without an epidural, and then would be on drip which makes contractions much more painful as well.

I was one of the 1/100 women that had it go wrong and the needle went in too far. It meant needing to buzz for an anaesthetist and wait for them to turn up every time I needed 'topping up' during the labour, which meant the drug wore off completely quite a few times so out of the blue I would experience the full whack of pain whilst waiting for the next anaesthetist to arrive. This alongside other things made it an extremely traumatic labour. Afterwards I had to have two operations to fix the damage they had done- luckily none of the side effects were long lasting though after the operations. It did make for a very traumatic and long stay on the postnatal ward though,

For DC2 I had an elective c section and it was the very best thing in the world. Recovery was 1000x easier than that from my vaginal delivery. The spinal needle is much thinner than the epidural needle so the chances of similar things going wrong are much smaller (that's what I was told anyway).

So yes, the chances of something going wrong are small but it does happen and was really quite traumatic for me.

Loved mine (had three im two labours, one didn't work so had another). I was actually ok with the contractions but everyone told me that once the contractions become unbearable then you are too late for an epidural (not UK, also no section on request). So had a few contractions and then epidural. I had no side effects.

@Luckyelephant1 generally with an epidural it takes all feeling/strength from your lower body from about the waist down so you’re generally lying on your back - also you have to have a catheter so you’re going to be needing to stay in one position. I also had monitoring for baby’s heart rate which meant there were more wires to contend with, although I can’t remember if that was because of the epidural or something else!
I wouldn’t have been able to get on all fours as i was just numb entirely on my bottom half. I remember learning in our NCT classes about ‘active epidurals’ where they try and give you some relief without completely immobilising you so you can stay active, but from what I remember they’re not commonly given and a lot of anaesthetists don’t do them.

Sorry, mobile epidural I think they’re called.

@luckyelephant1 You can't feel your legs at all if they get in in successfully so you'd have a job on getting on all 4's.

I had one for my first (and only!) baby and would chose one if I have another. I could have slept through labour and didn’t feel contractions. Right at the end I felt like I needed a massive poo but it wasnt painful. I pushed hard and did get two second degree tears but they healed well and I wouldn’t say they were painful after the event. More sore and a bit itchy when healing. When the baby was crowning I could feel intense stretching which I wasn’t a fan of but genuinely can’t remember if there was any pain at this point so I’m guessing probably not? Good luck with your labour. Mine was a lot less scary than I’d feared.

Thank you for all the replies ladies! I’m so glad I asked the question now ☺️ I’m definitely going to go into it with an open mind. I have my appointment next week to go over my birthing plan and had always said I’d be open to any pain relief and would take the advice of midwives at the time.
I hope so much I don’t have to be induced. Would love a nice, quick natural birth... in and out! Haha, a girl can dream huh 😂🙈

I started off labour with no pain relief but things started to go wrong / slow down dramatically and I couldn't cope with the pain so I got epidural. After agony of labour it was amazing to be pain free! Needed intervention in the end and with epidural already in place that was less stressful the Dr could just crack on. No complications. If I have another baby will try going without but wouldn't hesitate to have another.

The main change for me was starting in MLU all calm, in birthing pool, lovely. But for epidural moved to labour room, wires and monitors everywhere and obviously you are bed bound. But in pain free bliss and baby came out safely which was most important.

Induction due to large baby. Went in hoping for as little pain relief as possible but knew options and was willing to ask for more if necessary. I was worried about side effects too.

Pelvis split 3 days before my induction so I was in agony and completely immobile. Definitely didn’t want an epidural after that happened as I could only open my legs so far and I was worried about doing long term damage if I couldn’t feel my limitations 😓 38 hours into my induction (the last 12 of those with the hormone drip 😅) I was only 3.5cm dilated 😬 asked for an epidural at that point because the pain in my pelvis meant I couldn’t get off my back and that’s where I was feeling all my contractions. And every contraction was tugging at my pelvis and it felt horrific! I was gutted. I really hadn’t wanted to get one but I knew I didn’t have any more than a few hours left in me and wanted to get it while I was still in control. While they were on the phone getting it ordered my body just instantly felt weird...told the student midwife I needed an examination because something wasn’t right...I’d gone from 3.5-9.5cm in about 15 mins 🤣🤣🤣 I’ve never been happier. Anaesthetist walked whistling the most annoying tune pushing his wee trolley just as I had finished being examined and I nearly took his head off shouting at him to get out 🙈🙈🤣 poor man! DS was born within the hour and we were home that afternoon. I used gas and air from about 4 hours into the drip.

I would just go in with an open mind OP 😊 you never know how your body will deal with labour. My two best friends were both pregnant at the same time and looked at me like I was a crazy person when I said I wanted as little pain relief as possible 🤣 they were both adamant they were having everything they could get 🤣 as it turned out, neither had time for any epidurals. Ones labour was 4 hours from waking up with slight cramps to holding baby and the others was 7 hours but needed very rushed episiotomy and suction 🤷🏻‍♀️