Epidurals - are they worth it?

[BumbleAw]

For those of you who had epidurals, were they worth it?

How much pain could you feel/what did childbirth feel like?
How did you know to push - could you still feel your body?
Do you feel it helped or hindered labour?
Any long term effects?
Would/wouldnt you recommend?

Just to add, I think the skill of the anesthetist and getting the dosage and placement right makes a massive difference to outcomes and experiences.

Definitely!

I was induced, and the pain was unbearable.
It took 3 tries for the epidural to work ( it didn't work the first time, and the second time only worked on half of my body).
I didn't feel anything, it was amazing! My experience went from scared and painful to controlled and relaxing.
I didn't feel my contractions at all, so I guess the pushing took longer because of that. I managed to take a shower 2 hours after delivery, so it didn't take long for me to be able to use my legs again.

I'm 34 weeks pregnant with my second, and I will definitely request an epidural again.

I would say it depends on your labour...

For my first baby I had one and it was a GOD SEND! I was induced and in such pain it was an absolute relief.

For the second baby it was more natural and I wasn't in much pain but then I got freaked out by the needle and almost fainted while they were doing the epidural. Then it didn't work properly (apparently 1 in 10 don't work), so I had all the downsides of the epidural, limited mobility, canula in hand etc. but none of the benefits. Then the midwives put a clip on my baby's head to monitor the heart beat and it meant she went chin up, so it made pushing her out almost impossible. For that labour I wish they hadn't intervened at all, no epidural, no clip, and things would have gone much smoother for me and the baby.

For my third baby I'm going natural as I can because I think sometimes intervening with your body just causes your body to tense up and go into distress... but so difficult to predict what will happen and what you will need.

Epidural is the BEST thing ever after couple of hours of labour pain

Stopped horrific pain completely, Gave me time to rest before pushing, got my energy back to push, wore off with no side effects

What's not to like? One of the best things a woman in labour can have

OP if you've not already found it there's a website called labourpains.org that is run by the Obstetric Anaesthetists Association and gives a lot of really helpful objective information about epidurals (as well as the other pain relief options). HTH.