I'm a nurse on a surgical ward and first time mom, also got an epidural for my delivery. (Edited to add some clarity about the blood loss!) Thoughts? Experiences? I would love to hear other epidural experiences! We're contemplating having a second, and I find myself dwelling on our daughter's birth and that immediate period afterwards.wondering if skipping the epidural would have lead to a less frightening experience. My doctors said the anxiety was not caused by the epidural, but I am not so sure. I know epidurals can have a range of side effects and I would love to know more about how much of what I went through was caused by it, vs. Honestly, the period just following the birth, with the low blood pressure, anxiety, and dizziness, was much worse than the birth itself. For context, I also lost quite a lot of blood and needed several injections of something to stop hemorrhage, and they also drew blood to see if I needed a transfusion, so that was in the mix too. I couldn't stop shivering and I had terrible waves of anxiety and dizziness. My blood pressure, which was on the low side all pregnancy, dipped below 90/50 (I don't remember the exact numbers, but alarms went off and nurses arrived). I felt numb up around my stomach and chest and even into my shoulder, which was scary. I then gave birth about 3 hours after getting the epidural, napped a bit before starting to push, and I am glad I had it because otherwise I don't know how I would have had the energy to push. It took several more hours before an anesthesiologist was available. ![]() ![]() I had been on the fence about getting one in the first place (not being able to move around scared me) but decided to around hour 15, as I had back labor-excruciating. When I gave birth to my daughter almost two years ago, I ended up getting an epidural around the 20th hour of labor.
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