Oct 1

“I Bet It Worked Better Than You Think It Did.”

“I bet it worked better than you think it did.” – OB to mother after the mother stated she might like to birth in a birth center for her next birth, as she felt the epidural at her first birth did not provide her with relief.

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There are 26 comments to this post.

Jane had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 4:11 am (Quote)

“EXCUSE ME?!? Are you telling me that I don’t know the difference between pain and no pain?!?”

There’s really no other response.

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Heather Reply:
October 1st, 2011 at 9:43 am Heather(Quote)

Word.

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Cara Reply:
October 1st, 2011 at 11:25 am Cara(Quote)

No, I hear this as a variation on “as soon as the first contraction hits you’ll be screaming for the epidural”. That’s what everyone said about my plans for homebirth.

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Heather Reply:
October 1st, 2011 at 12:48 pm Heather(Quote)

I was told the same thing re: natural birth in general. Since my first contraction was at 26 weeks and I had 4 weeks of prodromal labor (which, btw, felt no different from ‘the real thing’) it was really hard for me not to tell those people that they were just flat out wusses if they were screaming for high-level narcotics over that (but I have endometriosis: I’ve been dealing with ‘unbearable’ pain monthly since I was 13 years old–it used to cripple me for 2 days every month, even had a standing doctor’s note to get out of school since I couldn’t even walk). So I realized I wasn’t being fair

And yes, I’ve HAD a labor where I was screaming for an epidural: or any sort of help managing the pain at all. I know the difference. It was still 9 hours of contractions after a few weeks of on/off prodromal labor before that part hit (my second birth).

I’m interested to see what happens this time. Only 3-5 weeks left!

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BeckyJ Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:36 am BeckyJ(Quote)

I was asked by a truck stop waitress a few weeks ago if I was going to get the epidural and I told her I’d be at home with no plans of hospital unless there was an emergency. Her eyes bugged out and she replies “be sure to come back and tell me how much pain you were in!!!”

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Kristy had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 5:02 am (Quote)

What would we do without the nice doctors around to tell us what we think and feel?

I’m guessing male doc that thought women are so in need of saving that she didn’t even realize how much more horrible it would have been without him there to rescue her.

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road2vba2c had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 6:37 am (Quote)

Doc, you’ll get pretty far with me if you DON’T tell ME what I FEEL. YOU are NOT in MY body!!!

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Kristin Reply:
October 1st, 2011 at 8:46 am Kristin(Quote)

I just had a visual of the opposite.
Ew.

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Heather P had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 6:44 am (Quote)

I’m pretty sure that the entire purpose of an epidural is to provide pain relief to the recipient. If the mother feels pain, it didn’t work. End of story.

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first time mommy had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 8:21 am (Quote)

you mean it worked better for YOU? Because it made me a “good little” patient and confined me to the bed where I “belong”?

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Kristin had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 8:44 am (Quote)

Really? You could feel my pain (Or supposed lack thereof)? Are you psychic? Can I have the winning lotto numbers please? Oh, and a different doctor.

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BeckyJ had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 9:21 am (Quote)

*head desk* Are you trying to tell me that my pain was all in my head? Is that why I was still writhing in pain while I was made to lie on my back because I had an epidural?

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Lisa had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 9:38 am (Quote)

He’s probably referring to the fact that our memories of our birth’s are fuzzier later on. Except he’s not thinking clearly because usually we think the pain wasn’t as bad later on. She obviously thought the pain was pretty bad, so that epidural really didn’t work right the first time if she still has distinct memory of that pain. This doctor must surely be a man.

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Jessica had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 11:22 am (Quote)

Considering pain is perceived and mama felt pain the epidural was useless to her. It didn’t work better than she thought because there was the perception of pain. But thanks for trying to dismiss the mama’s concerns. Jerk.

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Jena had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 12:02 pm (Quote)

This reminds me of what the OB told my mom when she was in labor with me and told him that the contractions hurt horribly (I think she’d been given pitocin): “You think this is bad? You just wait.” He was a horrible OB; I used to think he was atypical of the profession, but I know better now. (She said the contractions never got any worse, just stayed the same level of awful for eight hours.)

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Lace had this to say, Oct 1, 2011 @ 9:27 pm (Quote)

I hate hearing stuff like this! The doctor that did my last c-section told me I was just feeling pressure while I was being cut open as I was screaming and crying that I could feel him cut me. I had a section before so I knew what pressure felt like! It just makes me angry when doctors think they can tell their patients what they did or did not experience. If op says that the epidural wasn’t very effective, then for the love of all that is good, it wasn’t very effective!!! Stupid doctor!

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BeckyJ Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:29 am BeckyJ(Quote)

How HORRIFYING! I’m so sorry!

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Sarah had this to say, Oct 2, 2011 @ 7:15 am (Quote)

Kind of reminds me of my 2nd and 3rd births. I was completely numb from epidural with my first and with my 2nd I didn’t go numb until after he was delivered. I was told (by the ob? anesthesiologist? I don’t remember) that I probably had 80% pain relief. When I went into labor with my 3rd and was told I didn’t have time for anything, I freaked. While my 2nd wasn’t horrible, I was told that I only experienced 1/5 of what I should, so no medication would be 5x as bad, right? Actually, it was surprisingly easy, relatively painless and incredibly empowering.

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BeckyJ Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:32 am BeckyJ(Quote)

With my first, they didn’t administer the epidural medication until I was an 8(had an intrathecal, though) and by that time, I was almost in transition so it was too late to be effective. I wasn’t numb until I delivered him.

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Maria Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 4:19 pm Maria(Quote)

I would think an epidural that wasn’t fully functioning would be worse than med-free labor, since the partially working epidural would be interfering with your natural hormonal flow. JMHO.

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Sheva Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 4:36 pm Sheva(Quote)

I agree. And it’s also worse (IMO) because if the mom asked for it, then she needed it, and I think that not to have pain relief when you need it is horrible.

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bcb1961 Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 5:20 pm bcb1961(Quote)

Yes to this. And, after you get the epidural you can’t really move at all.

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Maria Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 5:24 pm Maria(Quote)

Soooo true. On my back was THE most painful position, but half-numb, there’s no way I could have squatted, knelt, gotten on all fours etc.

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Sheva had this to say, Oct 2, 2011 @ 8:35 am (Quote)

Wait. The PURPOSE of an epidural is “no pain”.
If she felt pain, then, by YOUR definition of the purpose of an epidural, it didn’t work, right?
So, how exactly did it ‘work’?
This makes me so mad.
OP, I’m sorry you felt everything when you weren’t planning to. That, to me, is horrific.

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bcb1961 had this to say, Oct 2, 2011 @ 12:40 pm (Quote)

This is mine.

The doctor was a woman. Actually a woman with three children of her own, although they are triplets so I’m sure that was a planned C-section.

Here’s the short story: I was induced at 38.5 weeks, 5cm dialated for no medical reason. I didn’t know about the benefits of natural childbirth, obviously, and I asked for the epidural as soon as the Pitocin contractions started to get bad. The anaestesiologist refused to wait until between the contractions to administer the epidural, so the insertion was pretty excruciating. Then, it only worked on one side (so the pain is basically just as bad, but I couldn’t move around to relieve it). Finally he came back and put in another dose of medicine, and I had complete relief for a couple of hours. I started pushing at 3:15 and by 3:30 the epidural was basically completely worn off. My daughter was born at 5:07 (with vacuum assistance and epesiotomy).

Fast forward 2 years and I’m at the OB for a yearly exam. I (stupidly) asked her if she knew anything about the new birthing center nearby. Then I felt kind of silly so I attempted to explain myself. That’s when she came off with the quote in my OP. I pretty much didn’t say anything after that. She ended the appointment by saying “ok when you get ready to have a baby just come back and we’ll take out your IUD!” Umm, no thanks. I went to the midwife practice last week and got my IUD removed, and I’m hoping to get pregnant with my next baby soon, who will be delivered at the birthing center!

For me, the moral of the story that I try to share with pregnant friends is this: getting an epidural does NOT guarantee pain relief! That is something that I really didn’t understand before I had my daughter.

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