[Willow]

I have had 4 children...I had an epidural with 3, but still delivered 2 naturally. If I had to do it all over again, NO NO NO epidural!

My first epidural was pushed on me by my dr. I wasn't in pain, but he wanted to speed up my labor and delivery because I was making him late for a meeting that he was a guest speaker at. He made me take the epidural and turned up my pitocin drip. When it came time to push they didn't turn the epidural off (this is what they DON'T tell you when offering an epidural...they are supposed to turn it off/down so you can feel contractions to know when to push. I couldn't tell when I needed to push, and even tho my daughter was crowning they used a vacuum. It was awful!

When I had my second child my labor was all of 3 1/2 hours. I hit transition at 8 cm and panicked and screamed for an epidural. I wasn't in pain, I was just scared. I didn't get the benefits of that epidural. They put it in and when they turned me over it was time to push. Epidural kicked in right after my son was delivered.

Third child, got the epidural earlier on because I was in ALOT of pain! Epidural didn't help much and actually WORE OFF during labor. PLUS my son was face up instead of face down so I was pushing out the largest part of his head first. Immediately after his birth i was vomitting and having severe headaches. Turns out, they nicked my spinal cord and I was having spinal headaches. I ended up having a blood patch because pain meds (darvecot, vicodin) were NOT working! A blood patch is when they give you another epidural catheter, but instead of putting meds in it, they draw blood from your arm and inject it into the epidural catheter. It was really scary because they kept telling me I couldn't move until they were done because I could accidently paralyze myself. ON the upside, 10 seconds after the blood patch I could sit up and not have pain. Before the blood patch I couldn't stand or walk or think beyond the pain. It was a far worse pain than childbirth itself and it wasn't like I any period of time without the spinal headaches...they were all day constantly and all night constantly...I spent the first five days home from the hospital laying on the couch crying...it was all I could do...I couldn't even enjoy my new son. I will ever love the dr in the ER that gave me that blood patch!

My fourth child I was induced because he had been breach for weeks and when he finally flipped over they induced me. I went all natural with him...It was a bit painful, but bearable compared to the spinal headaches I had with my 3rd child. I prayed the entire time I was in labor for God to give me the strength to deliver and to keep me from asking for an epidural...and you know what? He did! Honestly, my fear of the spinal headaches was far greater than my fear of the pain of childbirth.

I have no way to adequately describe a spinal headache. The pain was worse than when I had gallbladder attacks, and those make you feel like you are dying. You feel like you are in a fog and you can't escape it and when you stand your head just throbs and pounds like you wouldn't believe.

Oh and I should add, from what I understand, spinal headaches are only caused from spinals/epidurals that aren't done correctly.
Please, if you can avoid an epidural, DO!