SM
Posted By: KidsX2 on 2009-06-13
In Reply to: Epidural or not? - First timer
Okay, so my first child, for some reason or another I decided I did not want an epidural and had discussed this with my doctor. So, when my water broke, my doctor was out of town and I had the on-call doc caring for me. I never went into labor when my water broke, so they had to induce labor with Pitocin. The on-call doc came and asked me if I wanted an epidural, I told him no, and he told me that Pitocin makes labor pains like A LOT worse than regular labor pains and he was leaving the consent form with me just in case I changed my mind. Maybe a couple of contractions later, I'm not even sure I read the consent form, but my signature was on the line. The contractions were HORRIBLE, BUT like I said I was being induced pretty fast with Pitocin. With the epidural, of course I couldn't feel contractions at all, so during the pushing process the nurse would have to look at the monitor and TELL me I was having a contraction and to push. The pushing process took about 3 hours, I was in no pain, but it was EXHAUSTING pushing that long and I didn't have a great intensity about pushing because basically I felt no labor pains, no real motivation to push as hard.
Well, my second child, I decided I wanted the epidural. She was 2 weeks late and I was scheduled to be induced again with Pitocin and I had already felt what that felt like. Well I had a new graduate R.N. checking me and she kept saying I wasn't dilated enough to get the epidural. I was yelling at her and telling her I HAD to be dilating, I was having contractions less than a minute apart, but she wouldn't listen to me until finally I told her I needed to push. It was A LOT of pain, but again I had the Pitocin. When the doctor came in, he checked and I was fully dilated and she had been unable to feel it because my water had not broke, so too late, time to take the baby out with no epidural. It seriously hurt so bad that TWO pushes and my baby came out and she was a big baby, lol. I had MUCH motivation to get the pain to stop.
So, from my experience, if I have another child, IF I don't have to be induced, I would do it naturally, just because I would much rather get it over with in a few pushes, than exhausting myself for hours pushing. I figure if I handled it with Pitocin, I certainly should be able to handle it without.
As far as the back pain, well I have actually had back pain that I was told it was related to my first epidural. It's not debilitating or anything though, just an irritating pain that has never gone away.
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