Update: 05/22/10
Since first writing this article on January 28, 2010 I have seen that my blog post has been getting a lot of views. My guess is that you have landed here because you have done a Google search about Epidurals or are curious about pain during labor. The original blog post was mainly about my entire labor experience, not just the pain involved. Therefore I will give you my candid (of course) view on labor pain as I recall doing the same internet research when I was pregnant with my first daughter in 2005.The pain is so intense you will not be able to stand it, seriously. When you don’t have the epidural each contraction is like torture, and it doesn’t stop. It is like you have been involved in a car accident and have been seriously injured and there is no one there to help you. TV shows and movies, well most of them anyway, do not…and I repeat DO NOT depict labor and the pain involved correctly. There is not one ‘breathing’ technique or song that will keep your mind off of the pain, that is a load of bullshit! The pain is like someone is cutting you with a knife, do you think that you can sing a verse of “She’ll be coming round the mountain” if someone was slicing you up with a knife? Didn’t think so. The worst pain will be in your vagina when the head starts to crown, there is no pain medication for that part. The best thing to do is to push as hard as you can to get your baby out so that it ends quicker, that is the only way to get the pain to stop.
With that in mind, (this is just my opinion but) get the Epidural, don’t make this process harder on yourself than it really needs. I passed out twice during labor while I waiting for the epidural and it was horrible. The only thing I could do was attempt to breathe through it and pray, yes I prayed during labor. Nobody is going to think you are less of a woman because you asked for the pain medication and nobody is going to give you a gold medal for doing it without the pain medication. In the end, all you will have is your baby and being a parent is hard enough and can be shitty at times. The only medication for that is alcohol but you can’t drink that until you stop nursing. =)
Below is the original blog posting from January 28, 2010
During my pregnancy with Abigail I have always been concerned with the care for Lily (my 4 year old) during labor and I really hoped that my labor would be quick. Now I know to be careful what you wish for.
We had lined up various family members to take care of her depending upon the time of day I went into labor, the one time I didn’t want to go into labor was in the middle of the night. However, my body had other ideas. I woke up at 3:15 am on Monday morning January 18th with a really bad Braxton Hicks, turns out this was the real thing and I had lost my mucus plug. I woke up Louis and said, make some coffee and get ready because we are going to the hospital! I timed my contractions and they were not consistent, some were 4 minutes apart and others were 10 minutes apart. Most of them I could walk around through them but there were a few where I could not walk or talk during them. We called Labor and Delivery and they said to come in when they are 3-5 minutes apart.
My mom was the one who was going to watch Lilly should I go into labor in the middle of the night, so I gave her a call and woke her up at 4:45 and asked her to come over by 6:30. But the contractions kept coming harder and faster so I called her back a few minutes later and asked her to come over ASAP! We woke up Lily and took off for the hospital.
It was a holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr day) so freeway traffic was pretty light, however Louis felt the need to get in the #3 lane and drive the speed limit as I am screaming through each contraction. I yelled at him, get in the Fast Lane and gun it or we are having this kid in the car. I could feel that something was not right, these contractions were coming too fast and hurt more with each one. When we finally arrived at UC Davis Medical Center we had to walk while I was having contractions through the entire hospital and into the next wing, yes I said walk to Labor and Delivery and it was the longest walk ever!
I got into the triage section where they evaluate your situation and decide if they are going to admit you to a room, it didn’t take them too long to decide to admit me and start me on antibiotics as I have Group B Strep and need to have 4 hours of antibiotics prior to delivery. They checked my cervix and I was at 3 centimeters, I had gone from zero to three centimeters on my own in 3 hours. They also ordered the epidural as I walked (yet again) to my labor room.
They gave me some wussy pain medication while I waited for the epidural but it didn’t really help, these contractions were getting worse and coming every 2 minutes. It was the worst pain I have ever felt in mt life, this must be what torture was like. For the next 2 hours I screamed, prayed and begged for my epidural and wondered why this was happening to me, why was I waiting so long for the epidural? Remember, it was a holiday and there was ONE epidural fairy wandering labor and delivery and I was 3rd in line for an epidural. WHAT?? By 9am my labor nurse told me that I might have to give birth without an epidural, and that put me even more over the edge, I flipped out. At one point I even passed out from the intense pain and Louis and the nurses had to wake me up and even keep from from passing out another three times.
When the anesthesiologist finally arrived a bit after 9 AM I had to fill out paperwork (are you kidding me!) and she had to review the risks of having an epidural, PLEASE just give it to me already. I was having contractions every two minutes and during the epidural process I had to remain perfectly still, that was the worst part of labor. I vividly recall staring at a piece of lint on Louis’ shirt and gritting my teeth while I held his hands and cried from the pain. The attending Anesthesiologist and my labor nurse Kimmi each held me up and I started to pass out again from the pain and they held me up while the resident anesthesiologist administered the epidural.
Finally, I could feel relief with the epidural and now I could make it through the contractions while just doing my breathing exercises, which up to this point were pretty useless. The nurse checked my cervix and I was dilated to 8 centimeters, this had done all with out the epidural. The bad news is I have to wait another 2 hours to give birth because the antibiotics have to be in my system for 4 hours prior to giving birth and they were only in my system for 2 hours now. During the next to hours I could not push and try to remain calm as to not go into labor. If I were to go into labor the effects of the Group B Strep could be life threatening to Abigail. We realized that the camera was still in the car so Louis ran to get it, all the way back through the hospital and out to the car.
11:00 AM finally came and my nurse checked my cervix, I was now at 9 centimeters and since I had the antibiotics in my system for 4 hours they could now break my water. As soon as they broke my water I could feel Abigail slip down into the birth canal and I knew that I was ready to push my little Abigail out. The nurse called in the delivery team and I went to work pushing through the contractions. In my previous pregnancy with Lily I pushed for over 2 hours so I assumed this time would be the same, wrong. I pushed for maybe 30 minutes and about 10 times when she was born. The cord was wrapped around her neck and she was purple, but she was doing fine once they got her untangled and checked her out. I sneezed and then my placenta poped out and it took them longer to repair my 2nd degree tear than to give birth.
All in all it was a quick delivery and could have been quicker if it wasn’t for the Group B Strep. I was in labor for a total of 7 hours and pushed for 30 minutes.
I can’t really blame anyone for the lack of getting my epidural sooner, if I hadn’t progressed so quickly I would have been ok waiting for the epidural, of course maybe having more than one anesthesiologist on staff would have been nice, but oh well.
I feel that I can now do anything, after getting though this labor process I feel like a stronger woman and my recovery has also been awesome too! I am a bit sleep deprived but what would life with a newborn be like if you got sleep?
For more information about the stages of labor you can check out this link - http://www.prohealthcare.org/services/BirthingProHealthyBaby/birthing-binder/chapter-three/labor-guide.aspx
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