What was your experience with the epidural?

Question

Do you feel that you are pushing?

And does the episiotomy hurt after the effect goes away?

Answer 1

It was great.........after the needle came out of my spine !! lol
It hurts but is well worth it !!
You have to make yourself push.....

Answer 2

I have had 3 epidurals. With the first it worked great. I had pressure but no pain. Then with both #2 and #3 it didn't work. I still had incredible pain and it wasn't worth the pain of the epidural. That hurts. I will not be getting one with this one (if I can convince hubby to get snipped, If I can't well then I have to to have my tubes tied.) I could feel like I had to push but that is only because they didn't work. Also.. I could even feel the episiotomy. That was fun. Good luck

Answer 3

I did not have an epidural with my first child. Two years later I demanded one with my second..I didnt want that kind of pain again!!!

I was at the hospital, close to delivery, and asked when my epidural was going to happen, when the nurse said "Oh no, you dont need that, besides the anathesiologist is busy in surgery right now...and by the time he gets out, you will have had your baby already"

Well suddenly the contractions became unbearable. A minute before I was cracking jokes between them....now I was hysterical, sobbing in pain. Looking back the only real difference was my fear. I was suddenly scared...and the pain came on HARD. Weird the way your mind can do that. FEAR...that makes the pain

Anyway, next thing I know, the anathesiologist is there and puts some kind of drug into my IV line. I still dont know what it was... but he needed calm me in order get the needle in my back for the epidural. Well this guy finally got the needle into my spine on the SEVENTH try!! The next day my spine hurt more than my stitches down below. It was all bruised.

No I couldnt feel pushing, I just pushed because everyone was screaming at me to. After the head came out, my doctor found the cord around my baby's neck. She had to cut the cord and they everyone yelled at me to push fast because the rest of the baby had to come out fast.

Im not having an epidural with this one. I now know that I CAN handle it so long as I remain calm and dont have fear..I saw it in myself. And Id rather pass on the bruised spine...that hurt alot.

Now in this current pregnancy I have alot of tailbone pain and have found that I may have injured it during the last delivery because I couldnt feel anything.

And one more thing...that no one can explain, but I KNOW is connected to the epidural. A few days after delivery I got an itchy rash on my lower belly, then each day it moved down , down down my legs....(as the freezing had done). It was so itchy I bled from scratching it. My doctor was dumbfounded and gave me some steroids to clear it up. But it was weird..and only on the lower half of my body......the part that was numb from the epidural. I think I had an alergic reaction to it...and Id never have another epidural again. My current doc says its not possible..but I know different

Most people seem to have a good experience with them...but not me really

Answer 4

With my first son when they gave me my epidural my hubby passed out it was so funny, but It didnt effect my pushing at all. I have heard though that some people lose their ability to push but I think that in most cases that the doctors turn the meds down and you can start to feel again. I have had 2 children and my labor was almost painless. When you get an eppy it just feels like a bee sting and then thats it you are numb from the waist down. Its a wonderful feeling

Answer 5

When I had an epidural the doctor decided to decrease the medicine when I started to push so I could feel the urge to push. What I really felt was a lot of presure and believe me It did hurt some, I would hate to go through pushing without an epi

Answer 6

Positives:
I was completely numb, and was able to sleep from 4 cm to 10 cm dialated. This gave me time to rest before time came to push.

Negatives:
However, the down side was that I was too nervous to sleep. I couldn't feel anything to push, so they took off the epidural, since it was vital to feel when the contractions came, so that I could push sucessfully. I pushed at 10 cm dialated for 3.5 hours. This caused my cervix to swell, and therefore my episotomy was useless. I had to be taken in for an Emergency C-section, they tried to reapply the epidural but this time it didn't work well enough. I could feel them pricking me, so they had to put me under. The anetheseologist gave me gas.

All in all I ended up with (2) epidurals, an episotomy and a c-section.

Answer 7

During my epidural at first I didn't feel much of anything and I didn't feel the full effect of all the pushing. But I could still feel all my contractions. Just so you know I've had one epidural labor and one natural. I suggest the epidural. But my sister had to have her epidural cut off. She couldn't feel any of the contraction and didn't know when to push. Even if you have the epidural during most of the inactive labor and have trouble with knowing when to push they can always turn it off and it wears off really quickly so you can start pushing. Good luck!

Answer 8

You have tons of answers for this question but I will agree w/most people that getting an epidual was great!!! My doctor said to get the epidual whenever I was ready, and I sure did. I asked for one when I was dialated to 4, and everything went well, and by the time that I had to push the epidural wore off a little so I could feel to push.

Answer 9

my epidural helped alot with the contractions, however when it came to pushing I felt ALOT of pain, like I had no pain medication what so ever, the nurses told me I wasn't feeling pain though, that It was just pressure. I also have a numb spot about 2 inches in diameter on my back where I had my epidural.

Answer 10

With my first yes, I felt the pushing, but it wasn't bad or anything jsut felt like early contractions. WIth my second, no, I didn't feel anything (but I had just gotten my epidural an hour before she was born). I didn't even know when her head came out. With my 3rd I felt everything, my epidural stopped working about 45mins before he was born.

I never had any problems pushing with any of them.

#1 was 15mins, #2 was ~5 mins and #3 was 2 mins

Answer 11

I was in labor for 19 hours...it hurt without the epidural. I got in after 15 hours and gosh I dont recommend anyone not to take the epidural. I felt no pain and I kinda felt myself pushing when they told me to :)