Three Epidural Births
I have been reading the stories from the epidural section of the web site and I am so glad to see that someone is willing to print something that is pro epidural.
I am the proud mother of three. The first baby was induced and I fully intended to have an epidural and I did but they let it wear off. For some reason there are a lot of Dr's that are under the impression that you cannot push if you have a full epidural. This is not the case. As for complications, well let me tell you.
My first baby, Due December 12, 1994 was still not there on December 20. The doctor decided to induce because I was showing signs of PIH and beginning to have protein in my urine. I went into the hospital at noon that day and they began a petocin drip. The contractions weren't bad and they came in and broke my water. When they did that the doctor became concerned because there was meconium in the water and that can indicate post maturity. He wasn't very concerned though since he had expected that it might be the case. The nurses called him back in when the baby's heartbeat was not recovering after a contraction. They turned the drip down so the baby would have more time in between contractions to recover and put me on oxygen. At around 11:00pm I was begging for an epidural. They gave it to me right away and it was wonderful. The paiin was gone and I could relax and enjoy the experience of having a baby. That didn't last long. I was soom fully effaced and dialated and they wanted me to push. I sat up to do so because it was more comfortable. I cold feel the baby begin to come through, the epidural was almost gone, and I told the nurse that I could feel the baby crowning. She told me that I could not possible know that because it was my first baby. They were concerned still about the baby's inability to recover very well after contractions and brought me into the delivery room (surgical) in casew I needed and emergency C-section. They paged the doctor. He was nowhere to be found. I was screaming and the anesthesiologist didn't want to give me anything because he was convinced it just wasn't that bad. He told me to breathe. I was afraid to breathe because I thought I would pass out or throw up. Anyway, the baby came out as the doctor arrived about twenty minutes after getting into the delivery room. He began to clean me up as the nurse was saying, "I can't get a heaertbeat" and a team began to try and revive him. It sounded like a shout to me but then I was a little on the stressed out side. They got him breathing and his heart beating again and they ran out of the room with my husband to put him on a heart monitor and under an oxygen tent. The doctor began to prepare for stitching and again went t oclean off the blood. I jumped from the cold rag the he was using. The anesthesiologist says you can feel that? I said yes and he gave me a shot for the stitches that I laughed at. I had a baby with no anesthesia and you think a few stitches are going to bother me? I can't even feel those. But it turns out that was a good idea because the doctor said that I looked like I had sat ona blender and turned it on and I would probably have a hard time recovering and having sex. That was okay becasue at the time I never wanted to have sex again, but I have two more kids so you do the math. The other two were full epidural, I pushed the babies out and it was painless and wonderous to not have to concentrate on staying alive when the greatest miracle that will ever happen to you is occuring.
