Epidurals - yay or nay?
For many women, epidurals are the pain relief of choice during labor and birth. Unfortunately, many women are led to believe that they are completely safe, work effectively every time, and are nothing to worry about. Many women and sometimes doctors claim they enhance the labor and birthing process and make for a happy, memorable event for the parents. Some women decide early in their pregnancy that they want an epidural as soon as they go into labor. It seems to be a growing trend that women “shouldn’t have to” experience pain during labor.
While epidurals are used nearly routinely in most hospital environments, they are not without their side effects to mom and baby, nor are they something to be worry-free about. I am very surprised by the frequency of doctors claiming they are safe while there is evidence documenting the opposite. The more I teach and follow up with my students and talk with pregnant women who are not students but have questions, the more frequently I run into women who have had short term or long term problems as a result of their epidurals, or their labor was effected in such a way from the epidural that a cesarean section or instrumental delivery had to be done.
I’d like to start blogging about epidurals, doing little parts at a time. I think it makes for easier reading instead of putting everything out there at once. This is something women need to know about, and need to educate themselves from a variety of sources. There are a variety of ways to reduce pain during labor – both medical and non-medical – and each is capable of enhancing your labor and birth experience, while still making for happy memories.
Epidurals DO have their place in labor and delivery, and I will get into that. But first I’d like to start off with what an epidural is and how it’s used, so we’re all familiar with it before I go into more detail.
Stay tuned…