But there is a choice whether you want to have medications to deal with pain or not. I watched the movie "The Business of Being Born" and talked to many people who delivered in hospital with epidural, in hospital without epidural and people who delivered at home with midwife. I meet with many people during the day for my job and picking up a conversation about baby delivery was easy. I talked to over 400 women hearing all their stories. Out of probably 400 people I talked to no one ever said that they did not like an epidural. In fact many said that it was the most wonderful thing ever happened to them during birth and they could really enjoy birth of their baby in a completely pain free environment.
But my problem was that I wanted to deliver in squatting position and with classical epidural you can't move your body and only delivery position available to you is lying down. Then I read online about mobile epidural and asked my doctor about it.
My doctor was very supportive about the idea and said that I have to request it at the hospital. If I just ask for epidural anesthesiologist will assume I want the full force epidural and that is what I will get. I have to be very specific about the fact that I want mobile version of epidural. In fact I would be lucky if doctor dealing with me will know about it. Apparently not all anesthesiologists like to administer this type. So this is what I did. Once I entered the hospital in labor (in my case it was rather close to delivery after 36 hours of labor) first thing I did I asked for mobile epidural. To my surprise a nurse had no idea what I meant. I said that my doctor mentioned it and that I have to ask anesthesiologist for it specifically. It got to a point when nurse had to call my doctor and ask her what I meant. My doctor clarified something on the phone and while she was on the way to a hospital anesthesiologist came. He knew what I meant! Yey! He said that it is such epidural type that will not paralyze me completely. I may feel some pain but it will be more bearable. He said that I could potentially get out of bed and walk, but of course, it is not recommended.
He was very skillful and I didn't even feel a needle in my spine. About 5 minutes after he did it I felt no pain at all. I felt that I was in heaven. But surprisingly I could lift my legs and lift myself up in a sitting position. When my doctor came for a delivery she asked for a squatting bar to be installed on my bed. It is a bar that goes in front of you, so you can put your hands on it and lift yourself forward and up.
Also because the drug is not as strong as with standard epidural I did not feel cold afterwards. Some people are describing that they have very strong shivers for a few minutes after they got a needle. No such a thing in my case.
When I was pushing I could feel pressure in my butt - this was a contraction. When contraction came I lifted myself up and pushed. Once contraction stopped I laid back in bed waiting for the next one. No pain whatsoever! I felt strength in my legs to be able to squat for a few minutes at a time, and if needed I felt like I could handle good 10 minutes in such position at a time. I pushed for about 30 minutes very slowly to avoid tearing. When my baby came out, I could not believe it was over because I had so much strength in me that I could easily go for another hour.
I highly recommend mobile epidural. Not only it will free you from pain, it will also avoid common complications with standard epidural when woman is so sedated that can't she feel her muscles to push. If you can't push doc will have to use tools - something to avoid at all costs. Girls go for mobile epidural!
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