EPIDURAL yes or no ?

Hi All ! 

Im 29 wks pregnant and i am starting to think about pain relief through labour and want your advice on epidurals ? yes or no.

Thanks Katie x

my best friend went through epidural and said she was glad she took it as her contractions were rather painful and she coultn stand the thought of anything worse than that. After hearing what she has to say, i think i willl be opting for one too when the time comes. 

i personally didnt have one with either of my children ihad gas and air although i could still feel some pain it wasnt so bad, friends who have had epidurals ended up having assisted deliveries and as was worried that would happen it put me off having it myself good luck xxx

thankyou for ur replies, i guess im thinking well in advance because this i baby #1 for us and im totally unaware of whats coming lol ! Im hoping (fingers crossed) just to have gas & air but if pain is too much just wondered what the next best thing was ... suppose time will tell , fingers crossed.

Thanks alot,

Katiex

It all depends on your situation. I had planned to try and cope with gas and air, but due to an induction where I had a reaction to the drugs I ended up in a lot of pain. I opted for the epidural and it did end the pain. But bear in mind my labour then slowed so much it never got going again and I had to have a ceasarian.

I don't regret any decisions I made as I did them with the best information I had at the time. But next time I intend to have as little interventions as possible. That doesn't mean I wouldn't consider it again if the circumstances called for it.

I wouldn't decide to have one before you've even gone into labour though, but every women is different do a lot of research and decide how you feel about it.

I say no. Unless there is a real reason why a woman should NEED it, there is no need to put your baby though the additional trauma of being drugged on delivery. Millions of women give birth without any pain relief and everyone knows the pros out way the cons when it comes to an epidural.

An epidural is the only form of labour pain relief that doesn't affect your baby Claire. All injectable forms like pethadin and diamorphine definitely affect baby and their ability to feed but an epidural only affects the mother.

correct amy, epidural only affects the mother thats a fact. xx