Joint Pain

Is any type of pain relief during labour good or are there too many side affects?

Has anyone had pain relief ie. epidural or pethadine during labour and was it good?

Public Comments

1. I had an epidural with both of the deliveries of my sons. A lot of people are scared of them because they hear all these "horror stories" about them, which aren't true... Most of the "horror stories" you hear are about Spinals... Which were an older form of pain relief... The epidural will basically make you do dumb from the waste down... You still feel the pressure and some pain but it definitely takes some of the pain away! There was no question whether or not I was going to have them, I wanted to be able to enjoy the births of my sons as much as I possibly could with out being in horrible pain... Good Luck!
2. Just Gas as it makes you feel numb and not so tired after its great
3. I don't know if you've had children before but compared to natural childbirth...I can tell you it's worth any kind of side effects. Most women in western countries get epidurals and their baby comes out completely normal with no real risks. Since an epidural is only a local and does not effect the whole body (only the part of the spine where it's injected) it never even gets to the baby. The only thing with epidurals is that labor may be a little longer but only by a few hours at most. And compared to the horrible pain of natural, I would gladly go through a few more hours just to be more comfortable. (I'm currently searching for a hospital that gives epidurals. I currently live in China and most of the doctors here are sooo backward that they won't give them even if you ask!!!!)
4. I had natural with my daughter and planning on trying it again with my son, but my sister had an epidural with all 3 of her kids and never had any bad side affects she has trued talking me into getting one and I'm not due until March!!! Good Luck!!!
5. For risk of side effects to the baby, they won't allow you to get certain medicines after you've reached a certain point. My labor plans were to have my contractions and when I reached that point where I just couldn't handle it anymore, then I'd get the epidural. I wanted that to get that right before the cut off point. Well, each pregnancy is different, but the contractions were the worst part of labor. I went 12 hours( at home) with contractions. When I was admitted to the hospital, I still wanted to wait on the epidural, but I had to have stadol to relax me. But that only worked about 15 minutes for me( my friend got it and went right to sleep...lucky girl). After that, I said screw it and got the epidural. And let me say, I was scared about getting it, but it was well worth it. Mine actually worked too good and I couldn't feel myself pushing. The women that do it without any drugs truly have my respect. After all the pain from the contractions, I don't know if I could have pushed that 7lb baby out with no meds.