Do you plan on having an epidural or not? What are your reasons?

Question

Hey ladies, my son is due in June. This will be my second baby. With my daughter, I had a very delayed labour and it went on for about 16 hours (she was also one week overdue). I had to have Pitocin due to the slow progress and ended up getting an epidural as well. This was two years ago. While I felt no pain during delivery and had a super easy recovery, I’ve kind of felt guilty for having one recently... and I’d really like to try delivering without any medication this time. What are you planning for your delivery?

Answer

Please don’t feel guilty for wanting pain relief. Modern medicine has allowed for us to safely deliver babies with little discomfort now if we choose so. There is nothing wrong with that. 
Most people wouldn’t bay an eye for you taking painkillers to help a headache so we shouldn’t for women wanting epidurals.

Answer

No epidural planned here! No IVs. Oral pain meds if I’m struggling. My biggest plan is active movement! EVERYTHING, I have researched says movement helps baby move along once labor begins. It also just makes physiological sense. Your pelvic floor is full of muscles/tendons/tissue designed to move and shift for baby to come through but if you are stuck laying on your back with IVs and such stuck all in ya... you can’t really move. So mentally/emotionally/spiritually preparing for the journey and speaking positively to my mind that it WILL BE joyful and miraculous and awesome and just making sure I’m allowing movement. But that’s just my plan ♥️🤗. Praying all healthy babies and ladies listen to their body. It knows what to do!

Answer

I had a wicked long labor with my first. I was trying to go pain med free, but after 26 hours of brutal 3-5 min long contractions I ended up with fentanyl, an epidural and pitocin. Epidural only mostly worked, and I felt each contraction as nerve pain in my left hip after that. 
I ended up in that position bc the on call ob failed to notice that only the fore bag had ruptured and the rest was intact. Baby couldn’t get down deep enough into the birth canal to make any progress and it took 18 hours of hard ass work to get from 4cm to 6cm (they ended up manually rupturing the bag and I went from 6 to 10 in an hour). 
This time I’m going home birth with a midwife. I want someone who actually knows me and shows care during my labor, instead of being constantly distracted.

Answer

My current plan is no pain meds. With my first, I didn’t have much time for one. I dilated from 4cm to 10 within an hour. And my son was here in 2 pushes. As much as it hurt feeling everything, including the ring of fire, I believe no pain meds allowed me to feel what I needed to do and helped move everything along quickly. I also enjoyed being able to get up and walk around within 2 hours after birth. 
I also have scoliosis... so the sound of a needle going into my spine is scary and I’ve heard it can cause it to only work on one side. So rather than deal with the unknown, I’m going to do my best without any meds.

Answer

My first daughter, I got the epidural, but it failed and I did not have relief from it. My second daughter gave me no choice but to go med free (we were only at the hospital for 40 minutes before she was out.)
Between the two, I very much preferred my second labor. It was intense and very painful, but it allowed me to recover quicker and I enjoyed not feeling numb after giving birth 🤷‍♀️ Might be crazy, but I’m going to try and go med free again. I have generally quick labors and although the pain is near unbearable, I think its worth it in the end. 
That being said, don’t get down on yourself for whichever way the birth process goes! There are so many unknowns and we can all have a plan, but we all know birth doesn’t go according to plan very often. The are pain relief options for a reason and they are there to help if needed 🙂 After all, we are pushing a full grown baby out!

Answer

I’ve had 2 med free deliveries and plan for this one to be as well. The first was hard since I didn’t know what to expect and went to the hospital when my water broke but it was 18 hours till she was born and that sucked. Number 2 I stayed home and labored in the bath tub all night which was AMAZING and took away pretty much all the discomfort till I hit transition. Got to the hospital and had her 1.5 hours after arrival. Planning to do that again but try and wait a smiiiiidge longer for minimal mask laboring time and maximum bath laboring time. 😂

Answer

I don’t get the guilt over having the epidural. The epidural isn’t going to hurt your baby. At worst it’ll hurt YOU - which is a reason to reconsider it sometimes, but not to feel guilty over having it. I skipped the epidural for my first two, but honestly I’ve envied some of the births that I’ve seen of moms who had epidurals. They just look so chill.

Answer

Had an epidural with my first after being induced at 41w3 and laboring in vain for about 20 hours with little success. Ended in c-section. My goal this time is to wait until my body’s ready and hopefully not have to be induced. Ready to go as long as I can without any meds but we’ll see!

Answer

I had an epidural with my first and it enhanced my birth experience. My body tenses up when I am in pain. I labored hard for 23 hours and only dilated to a two. I decided to get an epidural and he was born just an hour after it took effect. I have no regrets. Do whatever is best for you, and try not to feel any shame about your birthing experience. Everybody and every body is different. 💕

Answer

Epidural for the 3rd time. No reason to feel guilty at all.
I had a side effect from it with my first (spinal headache) but still decided to have it with my second and planning for it with my third.

Do you plan on having an epidural or not? What are your reasons?

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