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scared the hospital wont give me an epidural?!

jadekay

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so my baby is due in 3 months and im starting to get so scared of labour but find some comfort in knowing the epidural is there however ive heard sometimes the hospital n nurses etc wont give it to you! Anyone know any information? I dont think ill handle the pain very well at all.
 
From my understanding, they can not deny you the right to epideral or other pain management. The only acception would be if you were completely dilated and pushing already, because sometimes epideral can slow down labor. Also i think a lot of nurses will try to encourage you to wait for the epideral if it is early on, because they want you to have the pain management when you reach the final stages of labor and gived birth. Other than that, there should be no reason for them to not let u have epideral..im sure itll be fine :)
 
The only reasons I have ever heard why they wouldn't give an epi were - getting to the hospital too late in labour(almost ready to push), because of an emergancy there were no anesthesiologists available, and having a previous reaction to an epi. I think these are all rare.

Have you talked to your doctor/mw about it?
 
i think like the others said you would only be refused one if you was too far dilated or if the person to give it is in surgery and unavailable, i had to wait about 45 mins for mine i think it felt like 3 weeks lol
Lou
xxx
 
The anaesnathist will be the one on call so it just depends if they're in surgery or not at that particular time. I think the chances are you'll get one but if theyre back to back in surgery then it might not be possible. Also if you're too dilated or not dilated enough they wont give one either. There wont be time if you're too dilated and if you're only 2-3cm it could stop your contractions and labour.

That being said, you've no reason to assume you'll even need one! You might breeze through labour :) Plenty of women have natural births.
 
I went determined to have an epidural (mainly as I'm a total wimp) I was so glad to have been given gas and air that the pain didn't seem nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. By the time I moved to the delivery suite my contractions were getting much stronger and the effectiveness of the gas and air was quickly wearing off but by that stage I was so close to having my baby in my arms that my body went on complete autopilot. I can't explain it, I had a back to back birth with my gas and air taken off me for the pushing stage and it was like someone else was doing it. I'm not going to say that it didn't hurt, but it was a strange type of pain it was more like my body was doing all the work and I was just along for the ride. When he crowed the best way I can describe the pain is like a burning sensation. I was expecting to feel like a ripping feeling but even though I had a 2nd degree tear I didn't feel nearly as much pain as I was expecting.

As long as you aren't too far gone when you as for an epidural you should get one, but bare in mind that you may feel that you don't need one.

I'm sure if you search my old posts you will see how pro-epidural I was, but until the time comes you'll never know what your body can do.
 
If the anesthetist is busy then you may have to wait or if you are to far along then they might not let you have one.

If that happens you will be fine, you have no choice not to be. Which sounds harsh but what i mean is you will be able to do it :thumbup:
 
It also depends on the hospital. The one nearest to my home doesn't offer them at all because it's so small. I think they simply don't have the staff or equipment to offer it. They don't even have obstetricians on hand. Your family doctor delivers your baby. However, the next city over does offer them and that's where I'll be going. Not just for the epidural, but the fact that I have a complicated pregnancy and would appreciate having some specialists on hand.
 
The anesthetists who came to speak to my nursing student group told us that the main reasons people can't have one are a previous bad reaction, too low of platelets, a lot of hardware in the space for the epidural (rods, etc), waiting too long- ready to push, and availability of an anesthetist.
 

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