Epidural or no epidural

[BEO]

For context : first pregnancy and only 23 weeks but trying to prepare.

I am wanting to hear people’s opinions on epidurals. I am not ruling one out but don’t particularly want one if I can do it without. Just wanting some more info on the pros and cons on them.

The reasons I’m not so keen are that you can’t move about , you can’t feel when to push and you may be more likely for intervention (forceps etc).

Obviously the pros are obvious, no pain!

I know some people have the opinion ‘why put yourself through unnecessary pain when you can have an epidural’ but I would rather try with just the other pain killers and gas and air.

be interesting to hear from people who have had multiple births, and have experienced both with and without epidural and what they prefer x

My hospital didn't allow this type of epidural. I could turn to my side and that's it. The epidural only worked on half of my body so I was still in loads of pain.

@TheBirdintheCave @SouthLondonMum22I know someone who gave birth to twins vaginally and was shocked (and impressed). No way on earth would I try that either 😅

My great grandmother gave birth to twins (a few years older than my grandma) in the late 1930s. Obviously a vaginal birth 😬

My great grandmother gave birth to identical twins in 1927. They were her 4th and 5th babies and she had no idea she was expecting twins until the first one was born and the midwife realised there was another one still in there!

A midwife once said to me "would you go out in heavy rain without an umbrella" and she was right in my experience.

@MargotBamborough @MyInduction My great grandma had two sets of twins but none of them lived :( Grandma said they buried them in shoe boxes in the local cemetery.

Oh, that's so sad. 😥

Thank goodness for modern medicine.

I had an epidural for DC1 because it was a long labour (21 hours from 5cm dilated to birth) and I needed a break from the pain. It was great and I recommend it!

DC2 and DC3 were much shorter labours so I didn't need any pain relief beyond gas and air.

@MargotBamborough it must've been terrifying to give birth back then, let alone giving birth to twins!! @TheBirdintheCave that's so sad. One of my grandma's twin sisters died in childhood. Another sibling died too😞

I'm so thankful for modern day medicine. Childbirth is mostly safe nowadays.

Yes it's crazy how far we've come since then. One of those twins is still alive! The other has been dead for over 60 years.

The same happen to my GM in 1952, she was a doctor too !

What a weird coincidence that so many of our great grandmothers/grandmothers had twins 😂

For clarity, lumbar epidurals for labour are sited below the level at which the spinal cord terminates (the cord ends higher up than a lot of people realise). The risk of damage to the cord from the needle is incredibly rare.

Had 3 natural births and never had an epidural. i have very quick labours and with the first i was scared to death of interventions so just wanted to get on with it. The following two were just to quick to get an epidural in. I managed with first two with gas and air and pethidine. last one was just g&a

I was very well informed for my first baby- I was older and a natural researcher! So I wasn't particularly scared of having an epidural-I was just absolutely determined to have an intervention free birth if I could. I couldn't say why- I just wanted to know what it was like. And I am still glad I did-the post birth high was the most amazing feeling I've ever had. And I've been to Glastonbury 4 times!