Epidural - Do i or dont i??

advantages of epidurals • More than 90% of women get complete pain relief • Your mind remains totally clear • Can help to control high blood pressure • Can put you back in control of your labour, and restore your confidence • Epidurals are more sophisticated than they used to be and you might find that your legs and feet are not completely numb Disadvantages:- May find that you are numb down only one side of your body or that a small part of your tummy has not been anaesthetised • May make you feel very shivery • You have to stay in bed • You need to have a drip in your arm. This is because epidurals make some women's blood pressure drop which seriously affects the flow of oxygen to the baby. The drip is a safety precaution so that, in an emergency, the volume of your blood can be quickly boosted to bring your blood pressure back to normal again. • You will probably have a catheter into your bladder. An epidural means you can't tell when you need to empty your bladder, so this has to be done automatically for you. • You might feel very out of control. You have three tubes going into your body and you have to be told when to push if the anaesthetic hasn't worn off by the second stage of labour. Your midwife and doctor effectively manage your labour for you. • Epidurals can increase the length of labour, especially the pushing stage. • Your baby's heartbeat will be monitored continuously, using a transducer strapped to your abdomen, or a smaller transducer clipped onto his scalp. • There's a greater chance of needing to have a forceps or ventouse delivery because epidurals often prevent the baby moving into the best position to be born. • If the epidural needle goes beyond the epidural space, there will be a leakage of cerebro-spinal fluid after the tube is taken out. This fluid buffers your brain and even a very small leak will give you a terrific headache. This is usually treated by taking a small amount of blood from your arm, perhaps the day after your baby is born, and injecting it into your back to seal the hole made by the epidural needle. • Some women have problems passing urine after having an epidural. • You might not be able to have an epidural! Not every hospital in England and Wales offers a 24-hour epidural service. Rates vary from 100 per cent of hospitals providing the service in the Oxfordshire region to 58 per cent in the West Midlands, 64 per cent in the South West and 28 per cent in Wales

I tore when I was in labor and i had no meds. I think if I could do it again I would have had some kind of pain reliever. Usually a woman who decides not to have any medications changes her mind at the last minute when its too late.

you can do it is a no problem thing

i could not do it for both my pregnancy, and believe me i suffered very much... so i think you should do it... if you don't handle pain it is better to do the epidural!

i felt really positive about the idea of epidural until it came to havingt it. I found that firstly it didnt work properly and that i was still in a lot of pain, when i asked for it to be topped up the nursing staff eventually refused, so i had to put up with a lot of the pain, then after i had had my child with this method, i was still in a lot of pain and even after 6 months when i went to see my doctor about the pain i was in, he did not blame the epidural, now seven years later i am still in a lot of pain sometimes and my whole body has become really stiff and painful, therefore i would not recommend it to anyone, i would say that when giving birth, the gas and air method is much more effective as a pain relief and as a way of relaxing the mind as well, good luck i am thinking of you