My Epidural Experience – Pros and Cons
Pregnancy is overwhelming with all the educated decisions you need to make for yourself and your baby. For instance, do I get an Epidural? Or do I do this naturally?
My advice is to do your research LONG before your estimated due date. I read countless articles on the pros and cons of an epidural. I watched countless videos on YouTube of women getting epidurals so I could mentally prepare myself.
Everyone has their own story and experience with an epidural. If you read my birth story you already know I had quite the experience with my first epidural.
PROS
To start, let’s briefly just go over the benefits of an epidural. The number one benefit and reason why it’s been stated that more than 61% of women now take the epidural, is due to the pain relief. It’s also a bonus if for some reason you should need an emergency C section, you are already under the anesthetic.
Although there are lots of statements that an epidural can slow down your labor, it can do the complete opposite. Your body finally relaxes with an epidural due to not feeling the pain and this can progress your labor quite quickly.
CONS
Some of the cons I have heard and seen women have are itchiness, a fever, blood pressure issues and the one I was a “victim” of a post-dural headache (Ouch!!!). Some woman do not like the fact that if you have a full epidural, not a walking epidural, you are completely numb. This means you have no movement of your legs. The duration of your labor and delivery you are stuck in bed. You also need an IV for fluids so you don’t dehydrate and a catheter for peeing as you can’t move.
Should You Get It?
First off, talk to your healthcare provider. My OBGYN was amazing at not pushing me in either direction. What she suggested was I make an educated decision for myself. After that, she suggested I have a meeting with the anesthesiologist at the hospital I was set to give birth at.
For both my pregnancies I discussed my options with the anesthesiologist and it helped me make up my mind. It truly is good to think about how you want your labor and delivery to go. Just don’t be set on your plan because more often than not, things come up that we really can’t control. Don’t let anyone sway you in your decision. Do what you feel is best FOR YOU. Other people will have all sorts of opinions but you’re the one going through the experience.
If an epidural is something you’d like to try, go for it!! If your a wonder woman who can and will do it naturally, go for it!! Regardless it’s a personal decision.
Here’s my personal experience with it…
The anesthesiologist who administered my epidural was a resident in training. She went to quick and inserted in the wrong epidural space and therefore when she took the epidural out to do it again, there was a spinal fluid leak.
Although it caused me no issues during my labor and delivery, it was about 24 hours after that my head started POUNDING. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life. We took our newborn home and thankfully her first night at home she slept from 8 pm-5 am!!! She didn’t even wake up at 5 am, I finally woke her up to feed her because I thought she must be starving.
When I went to feed her I noticed I could hardly look down to try and breastfeed her, my whole head and neck were stiff and pounding. I tried powering through while visitors came by but eventually found myself back in bed just curled up into fetal position in so much pain.
Three Days After Discharge
Three days after being home I called my mom and told her she needed to come to watch the baby. I balled my eyes out to my husband that something was wrong in my head. I remember describing the pain like my brain was swelling, that’s how excruciating it was.
He rushed me back to the hospital and straight to the emergency. I could barely check in to the hospital because the pain was so intense I just needed to lay down. The receptionist looked at me and yelled to the other nurses that they needed to give me the last bed in the emergency room. Immediately nurses and staff hooked me up to some strong medications via IV.
We waited for probably five hours to finally be seen, but the medication somewhat kicked in and I was able to sleep a bit. The doctor who met with me informed me I had a post-dural headache and there were only two options…
First Option
Number one was the option of a blood patch. This is where they extract your blood and do the same procedure like an epidural but with your blood. It acts as a seal and pretty much right away relieves the headache. But like with everything else, there are some very serious side effects to take into consideration.
Second Option
Number two was to wait it out and make sure to constantly be laying down on your back. He also suggested with the “wait it out” option, to drink coffee as the caffeine would help. He suggested I take whatever headache medication or muscle relaxant worked for me.
I was informed that a post-dural headache would not last more than a week and when you reach that halfway point the pain will start to decrease. Since I was technically at the halfway mark, he assured me that by the following day I would notice a difference. He strongly advised I go home and lay flat on bed rest until it was gone.
What option did I go with?
I was skeptical of the blood patch idea as I had not researched it. Number two felt like the safest choice for me. I took everything the doctor told me and immediately put it into action. Straight home to bed I went. I was on bed rest, drinking coffee and taking a strong muscle relaxant basically every hour. My family stepped up and rallied around me to help with the baby.
My husband was a total trooper who stayed up with the baby all night, did all the feedings, changed her, bathed her, etc… I couldn’t breastfeed as I had to lay completely flat so that was disappointing. Thankfully she took to formula and pumped breast milk really well.
As long as the baby was being taken care of and fed, I was happy. Between my husband, mom and mother in law, they would bring the baby to my bed when she was up so we could still bond. Exactly one week from my delivery, the headache was gone. The doctor was 100% right when he said that the headache wouldn’t last longer than a week.
Would I get an epidural again?
Call me crazy… but YES! I had no problem doing it again. Why? One, the epidural itself worked amazingly during my labor and delivery. It was pain-free labor and delivery for the most part. So during that time, it did its job. My nurse was able to help guide my daughter out when her shoulders started to get stuck just with her hands. She mentioned how this was only possible because I had the epidural.
Because she was able to use that method, she was able to help stretch the skin as the baby was coming out to avoid tearing. Fortunately for me, I had no tearing!
Two, I was told by multiple doctors and nurses that a post-dural headache only affects 1 in every 200 people! And of course, it happened to me… BUT I strongly believed it would not happen again to me as it’s such a rare thing.
Lastly, I had a resident in training administering the epidural to me, that is something I would not allow for again based on my past experience.
Always Make The Best-Educated Decision For You
All in all, everyone needs to make this very personal decision themselves. Having lived through the best and worst of it, these are just my PERSONAL suggestions, thoughts, and experiences with it. Everyone is entitled to there own feelings on it! Funny thing is, with my second labor and delivery, I DID get an epidural again, but it DIDN’T work, so I ended up having natural labor!
Please feel free to share your experiences with it in the comments! I love hearing from you all.
You may also enjoy reading:
[pt_view id=”dddb172dbj”]
Leave a Reply