Everything became a bit of a blur after that—the pain from the needle rivalled the pain of contractions —but there was a problem. All I could think of was the pain I was in. This was not an eventuality I was prepared for. In all my months of reading and classes, I never heard of an epidural not working. But, according to the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists, labour epidurals have a failure rate of nine to 12 percent.
However, failure is still not standardly defined, so the rates vary. Reasons for epidurals not working can include catheter placement, patient expectations and low pain thresholds. Perhaps the last one could apply to me. But it was not the case that the epidural worked a little bit. What happened over the next few hours was bloody and excruciating—I cried and I screamed, and I begged my husband to make it stop.
My daughter crowned for over an hour—each time my husband told me he could see her head and that it was almost over, her head disappeared again.
It was emotionally draining to have my hopes continually dashed, and I felt progressively more defeated. After nearly 18 hours of labour, the doctor said she was going to use forceps and would need to do an episiotomy. I thought childbirth would be easy.
Are you laughing yet? Because postpartum me is definitely laughing. But all signs pointed to things going smoothly. I got pregnant after about six weeks of trying. My pregnancy was relatively routine. I was one of those women who really enjoyed being pregnant, often cradling my baby bump or rubbing it absentmindedly while I worked or watched TV. So when I thought about labor, I wasn't concerned. My plan was to wait for contractions to kick in, get an epidural, push for a few moments and— voila!
But what no one—not my OB-GYN, anesthesiologist, or the nurses at the hospital—told me was that sometimes epidurals don't work. My son was nearly nine pounds at birth. He was also in the posterior position, also called sunny side up , which means instead of facing my spine during labor, he was facing my abdomen.
This meant my labor, despite receiving an epidural, was incredibly painful. I could feel every last thing, from each contraction to the midwife checking to see where the baby's head was in between pushes, to yes, even those lovely post-birth stitches. Wait, is that a bright side? Also, feel free to ignore your friend who hasn't had a baby herself, but is convinced that if you'd just tried a yoga ball or hypno-birthing or acupuncture or whatever, you wouldn't have needed anesthesia.
Romper spoke with Dr. If the catheter is misplaced, the medicine isn't delivered to the correct location and doesn't work. In some instances, she notes, the catheter simply isn't delivering enough medicine to manage pain — a problem easily fixed by the anesthesiologist, who will likely "top off" your catheter with more medicine. Martin has also seen cases in which the catheter was placed too far to the left or right, and relieved pain more effectively on one side or the other, which sounds both truly horrible and deeply annoying much like the recent Baywatch reboot.
Don't let these unlikely epidural issues give you nightmares. First off, they will check your levels — see if you are numb and how much it is affecting. Often this is done with ice or an alcohol prep pad. Just to see where your feeling is disappearing at. If you never got any relief they will likely need to re-do it. Which, while painful to think about may ultimately help you get your end goal of less pain.
Pro-Tip: A good indicator is your legs. If a patient is complaining of pain but unable to move their legs at all — the epidural is likely working well and that is pain that you will need to tolerate.
The setting-up phase the first hour can be hard as one side of your body becomes more numb than the rest of you. That being said — as nurses we know which anesthesiologists are better than others.
I hope you enjoyed this post — come learn ALL about epidurals and your other pain management options with me in my course:. Your email address will not be published.
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