Epidural experience

Hi all! I gave birth last week and have been reflecting on the birth and my first borns birth 5 years ago. I thought I’d offer my experience if anybody wants to listen and take anything from it! I had an epidural both times. You have the needle inserted etc and then you receive a base line of compared pain relief through that. However, they also give you a button to press and every 20mins, you can press the button to ‘top up’ the epidural if you feel you need it. First time I had it, I pressed that button every 20mins. I didn’t want to feel any pain, or thought that I shouldn’t so kept pressing it. That led to not being able to feel a thing by the time it came to pushing and having to have forceps/episiotomy as I just couldn’t push right as I was dead from the chest down! It took 6 hours to regain leg feeling afterwards. Last week, I had the epidural again and refused to push that button more than on 2 occasions (and only because it was building up into a lot of pain so I gave myself a bit of relief). Generally though, I kept it to the very minimum I could and yes it felt a bit uncomfortable during contractions still but I could FEEL everything. It just took the edge off the pain and made it completely bareable. I felt contractions and knew exactly where and how to push as I could feel it. I felt her head come out, then the body, then the placenta…. But without pain! It was amazing really. I was also up and walking SO much quicker this time as I didn’t have to wait hours and hours for my legs to come back to life. Honestly if you have the epidural, I would highly recommend trying to not push the button and just keep yourself in a state of feeling but without the painful edge of contractions! Good luck ☺️

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Thank you so much for sharing this! This is exactly what I’m having in mind in the case of requesting an epidural! I just want to try to take the edge of the pain but still be able to feel the urge to push! It’s really really helpful to read this and very reassuring to know that you can also move around if you don’t use too much of it! Thank you and all the best 😘

You’re able to walk with an epidural in?!

@Josie I had one with my first pregnancy and was still mobile, albeit with assistance and I was a bit wobbly. As the original poster has said, you’re in control after the loading dose, so if you don’t top it up you’ll likely still have some movement. That said, people react differently so one persons tolerance and ability to move may not be the same as the next person x

@Mia that’s nuts I was under the impression this whole time that once you’ve got an epidural you’re bed ridden and can only give birth on your back, love that no one has told me this 😫

I wasn’t up and walking during the birth as such as I think I would have been too wobbly and a bit of a fall risk but I could still move my legs throughout and shuffle about on the bed - just with an extra bit of effort. I gave birth on my side which was comfier for me rather than on my back first time around as I had no choice but to lay there like a sack of potatoes!

@Josie don’t get me wrong, I was mostly in bed because you have to constantly be monitored, so was hooked up with a zillion different wires making it tricky to actually move round but it was possible. I would certainly have been able to move enough to get into a better position than on my back to give birth, I ended up with an unplanned section though so it wasn’t necessary. We did some private antenatal classes and they talked to us about trying to limit pushing the button to top it up, so that when the time came to push you weren’t completely numb and could feel when to push. I’m not confident that had we not had those I’d have been given the same advice. x

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