Is birth still painful with an epidural?

My epidural failed so had it for no reason. Was in so much pain and couldn’t even push even though I was trying for so long. Ended up having episiotomy.

I didn't feel pain (until afterwards!) with the epidural but the pressure was the most intense thing I've ever felt. If I were you I would personally go for a c-section again as it's a known experience.

I had a epidural and I wasn’t in pain. 🤷🏾‍♀️ it’s different for everyone.

Getting my epidural placed with my first (induction) made me not get one with my second. After it was placed, I was okay until my contractions started to get really close and really intense, I could feel it then, but when I started pushing i couldn't feel anything and recovery was awful. But my unmedicated birth, I was a lot more focused, it was faster and i was up and feeling fine a few hours later. Recovery was a breeze and I felt better overall

I had an epidural at 7cm. But it was not a walk in the park to get to the 7 😂 although wasn't the worst pain in the world x

I felt nothing with my epidural lol just felt like a really big poo pressure in my stomach but nothing down there 🤣

I am so torn! I also feel like a planned c-section is so controlled, I don’t like the thought of the baby being in distress and an emergency situation happening, I feel it’s a bit selfish of me considering the vbac when I could go for the c-section!!

I had a gas & air and Diamorphine during labour and don’t get me wrong it is painful but the pain was bearable without needing an epidural. After hearing so many horror stories about how painful labour is I was so worried and was very open to take whatever pain relief I was offered but I was pleasantly surprised how calm and smooth sailing my labour went and all the stressing was for nothing. You might find you don’t actually need one but then it’s there as an option if the pain does become unbearable even with weaker pain relief x

@Chloe not to scare you or anything, but the risks go up with any interventions. So a c-section is riskier than a vaginal birth. There's risks no matter what, but statistically the more intervention, the more risk is involved.

I refuse to get one I'm not sticking that needle in me

my epidural worked but it was still painful lol you can feel the crazy pressure and you can feel when baby is about to come out

I had an epidural, no pain but the pressure you feel as the head is crowning is intense. Its hard to describe as not quite a pain

I've had a C-section but I've also had an unmedicated birth and if I could do that every time I would.

The pain of the contractions pre epidural are soooo intense, after the epidural they were pretty much gone for me, I could just feel the tightening but it didn’t hurt at all. Only thing that hurt was the last couple of pushes but epidural was totally worth it and my recovery was super quick. Obviously not going to be the same for everyone

Depends on when you get the epidural, i got it after about 6 hours of natural contractions that I would rate 9/10 on the pain scale. After the epidural, like 1/10 pain. I would describe pushing as not painful with an epidural but you can feel a sense of pressure and fullness.

I think because I had such a great c-section and great recovery it seemed like the perfect option! I understand there’s the risks of major surgery and compared to a great birth, but when labour doesn’t go as it should, the risks to the baby must be very high, I am more worried about risks to the baby than myself and in a planned c-section are there risks to the baby? I’m sure there must be? But in comparison to risks to the baby in a complicated labour? I don’t know enough there just questions in my own head really!!

Thank you so much everyone sharing your experiences so far!

I'll say in my experience, the 6+ hours of contractions and that pain is arguably worse than the 5-10 min of pushing 😅

My epidural failed and I had to have another one. I couldn’t really push and my body stopped contracting because of the epidural and I ended up having an emergency C-section xx

i felt the urge to push for over an hour but they were setting my room up for my delivery so i held back until they were ready ... which in hindsight is wild, but i only had to push through two contractions and she was out. it happened so fast i was in shock when they asked me if i wanted to feel her head between contractions! i felt nothing. i was induced, and my labor happened really fast. everyone was expecting it to take days. so i think i got my epidural on the later side ( i went way longer without it than with it ) and still felt contractions strongly until that last hour, i coasted through that. but i might have just been relieved because i knew it was almost over 😊 i also had a first degree tear and needed a stitch, didn't feel that at all. so that's another plus

I didn't have the epidural, just gas and air. I was induced at 40+3 (which I have my reservations about now), but I did want to comment on this as I ended up in an emergency cat 1 section, I wasn't present at all and a lot of it is a blur, my section recovery has been amazing, was out and about in the first week with no issues, healing nicely at week 4 now. But I'm in the same boat if we choose to have another child – torn between vbac or planned section. I just wanted to say, do seriously consider that there's obviously no saying what will happen and an emcs is always a risk for anyone, but I would prefer not to risk vbac and end up in that same situation esp if induced. I didn't get to witness my boys birth, I took me 1.5hrs to come around, thankfully my partner did the golden hour, but it was a wild experience and quite sad looking back that I really felt like it was all just happening to me rather than something I was actively participating in as I had envisioned. I would research as much as possible!

My epidural failed 😬 and baby was back to back, so painful, had to have a spinal block and forceps delivery in the end

I was super against getting an epidural and wanted a fully unmedicated birth. That plan went out the fucking window haha. You dont want the epidural too early as it can stall labour and they can only give you so much of the medication. I didn't get an epidural until my contractions were 90 seconds long and 60-90 seconds apart. You can feel pressure and control how much top up you receive...I stopped topping up when I was pushing because I wanted to be able to feel a bit more to know i was doing it right. I did a hypnobirthing class to help prepare me mentally for labour and it really helped me breathe through the painful contractions for hours. But once I got to the 90 second point...no amount of breathing would help. So go in with preparations and a plan but be prepared for the plan to change.

@Marina same with my last, I feel like I could have skipped it because I had no meds the first time and the contractions were worse than the birth (with tearing)

Epidural was BEST thing I did🥰

I’m so torn, I wouldn’t change my first birth at all, my own personal opinion was a c section was the best birth, it felt safe and controlled. I’m just sad at the prospect of not being able to give my toddler as much as possible, although I have friends who had worse recoveries from natural birth with tears or being cut so I suppose maybe I shouldn’t worry really as I know the c section recovery but vaginal birth recovery is a bit of unknown depending on how it goes!

I labored on and off with an epidural. I was in labor total for 31 hours. I decided to get the epidural at the 11 hour mark to rest my body because I hadn’t eaten a lot the day I went into labor and labored overnight and knew I would need more energy at 7cm dilated to get through the rest. I rested and then turned mine off and kept laboring but needed to ultimately reconnect at 9cm because the baby’s station wasn’t changing/he wasn’t progressing lower and I was stressing/swelling my cervix because my body was trying to push already. I ended up with a c-section using the epidural as pain relief so ultimately would have needed it anyway. With that said, I was very comfortable with my epidural placed and rested nearly the whole time with it. Granted my rationale was using it for rest with the intention of turning off to keep progressing. Although I was very comfortable, I do want to note that I wasn’t able to progress with the epidural placed so it slowed down the overall labor process.

No pain at all. It was a lifesaver

I personally have a pretty high pain tolerance so I only got the epidural due to being exhausted from having been in labor already for 19 hrs. Getting the epidural didn’t hurt, once I was pushing I could feel pressure but it wasn’t painful at all I was actually laughing during it😅, I didn’t even feel me tearing (2nd degree) or them stitching me up.

Thank you everyone for all your views on it! I think hearing how varied births can be im going to go for the c-section. I’m so worried about there being complications with the birth putting the baby at risk, or a difficult birth with intervention that causes a difficult recovery anyway! Also having a toddler and knowing when my c section will be to sort childcare etc is a convenience to consider too!

Once you have e the epidural, you can control how ‘numb’ you are essentially. There’s a button you can press to ‘top up’ alongside a minimal steady amount. Iv had 2 births and 2 epidurals. 1st time I pressed the button too much and was completely numb from the waist down - couldn’t walk, feel a thing or feel when to push so ended up with forceps so I hated that. Second time I refused to push the button more than twice so I could still feel things but wayyyy less and not unbearably so. I could also feel when to push and it was such a smooth delivery because of that with minimal pain and minimal tearing

when I had my son I can’t really remember the labour so much due to blood loss and a vagnal tear, I had the gas and air but with my girl I had absolutely nothing for her gave birth with no pain relief, woman’s body’s are amazing 😍

Can’t comment as I progressed too quickly to have an epidural with both my pregnancies so I only had gas and air but I would 100% choose that route again if I could. Recovery is pretty much instant and the pain is manageable, breathing exercises, a tens machine and gas and air and you’re good to go!

@Elle my first recovery was about a month due to getting stitches not going to lie absolute agony, my second recovery was absolutely fine was out the next day with my family x

I had the epidural due to having the hormone drip and I don’t know if it was because it failed or what but they had to call the anaesthetist back in 3 times during my labor as I was feeling pain when they told me I should only be feeling pressure.

Ive put yes because there will be pain before the epidural, and also I felt pain with the last 2 pushes. Then as the epidural wears off you start to feel pain in the vag, especially if you have stitches (which I did). Having said thay when the epidural kicked in it was amazing and I dont think I could have gotten through the labour without it xx

People say the epidural ruins there back 🙈, i would so labour again if it was the same as my second honestly with no pain relief man I was brave, had anybody else not took any pain relief while on labour

I had to have 2 epidurals with my first as the first one failed on my left side. I had two vaginal births, second was unmedicated and I promise you it was 1000000% better. Recovery time was better, I regret the epidural so much first time round

@Lucie i had an epidural and an unplanned c section my first time and i am definitely trying for a vbac unmedicated for my next. i didn’t go epidural because of pain necessity but resting potential so i’m hoping for #2 I can do unmedicated. i don’t think my recovery was as bad as the average c section but I would much rather have more mobility quicker the second time around when ill have an older baby/young toddler.

i got an epidural veryyy early into my induced labor because i’m allergic to morphine, so we went straight to epidural. Labor was not painful! Birth was not painful! every experience is different of course. my upper back was hurting, i’m assuming from being in the same position for so long, but that’s all. the only labor “pains” i felt was pressure when she was crowning, and pressure as she came out. but the pressure was not painful for me. as i said everyone is different though! the only thing i would’ve changed, waiting a bit longer to get my epidural, my labor was very long, and i feel like if i was able to get up and move around she may have come sooner.

I had an epidural and had no pain just uncomfortable pressure close to the time to push

Epidural can potentially give someone back pain, I mean they make you sign a waiver form saying any short term or long term effects after cannot be liable to the hospital so it’s basically, “here’s a shot in your spine! And if anything happens after we are not at fault” at your own risk. If you have a toddler to look after I would actually try for the VBAC because then you’re not recovering from a major surgery and can walk 1hr after birth and can potentially drive if you need to, but hey, that’s my thoughts. I’ve had 3 vaginals w gas so I can’t comment on the epi but I know that the epi f*ked up my besties’ back and she complains of back pain every time I see her. And it’s keeping her from wanting another baby, because of dreading that back pain for 9m and pregnant.

You can still feel something with the epidural but it takes the pain down to manageable levels.

Epidural is as if you've teleported yourself from hell to heaven. Priority pass loool. I adored both my birth experiences thanks to it. Also, no back pain that lingered. I was up and running around (somewhat running 🧐) with my toddler the day after giving birth.

Couldn’t feel a THING with epidural, I have such a low pain tolerance and was terrified of giving birth. I went from being in so much pain to not feeling a thing. I could still feel a little bit at first, so I had it readjusted and then it was perfect. Couldn’t feel a single thing 🥲

@Jess after my second labour I was in much better shape much earlier! My first delivery shook me to the core and I do think the whole numbing of having the epidural makes it worse when you can feel everything again! Hope you get your VBAC xxx