Epidural Problems

by Jessica
(Rockford, IL)

I received an epidural while in induced labor with my son. I was experiencing high blood pressure for the last two weeks of pregnancy, so my midwife decided to induce me.

I was able to handle the labor pain just fine until they ruptured my membranes at about 4 centimeters. After that, it was agonizing.

Quite frankly, I became very afraid of the pain and was scared that it would get worse. So I immediately requested an epidural. The doctor came in to do the procedure, and interestingly I remember feeling better once they sat me up for the prep (maybe what I needed was to walk around, and not be hooked to so many machines...but I digress).

The doctor was very experienced (over 30 years of giving epidurals) so I don't fault him for what happened next. He scrapped along my backbone, hitting bone a few times and had trouble finding the epidural spot. That was painful and very frightening.

Finally, he placed the catheter and gave me the medication. Within minutes, I thought I was having a stroke...seriously. The pain in my head was so intense and immediate, I thought the medication had some kind of reaction and I was dying. I am not a dramatic person, nor am I intolerant to pain...but this was HORRIBLE.

I began to have a panic attack thanks to the horrible headache, and they actually sent my husband out of the room because the situation was getting pretty bad. My head stopped hurting like that eventually.

The doctor felt bad that I was experiencing so much pain (worse than the labor, by far) and came up with the explanation that an air bubble must have gotten into the epidural space and gone into my brain. Lovely. Just to be safe, they gave me a very low dose of medication. I was fine with that, as now I was very freaked out about the epidural in my back.

As time wore on, and I was in labor about 16 hours, I began to feel more discomfort. The doctor came back in and gave me the "normal" epidural dose, and immediately I couldn't feel myself breathing.

I lost sensation from my neck down. This also caused me to panic...it's a horrible feeling. At this point, I also had uncontrollable chills and was vomiting. They brought in the machine they use to warm c-section patients as I was so cold.

As the time came to push, I could feel the urge just fine as the dose of medicine I was on was so low. But I had a very high fever. After all of this, my baby boy came out and was pink and healthy.

However, after about 3 minutes, the midwife noticed he was struggling to breathe. After 20 minutes of trying to get his breathing regulated, they took him away from me (without getting to bond or breastfeed) and into the NICU. I was just numb and in shock.

About 12 hours later, I got to see and hold him. They gave him an IV that was strapped to his little arm because of my "fever" they were afraid he was at risk for infection. So he was given a powerful dose of antibiotics.

He was allowed to room in with us, but we were forced to give him supplemental bottles because of the IV (he needed extra fluid). This interrupted our breastfeeding relationship and made the first weeks more difficult than they had to be.

At any rate, he was discharged a day later than I was, so I had to go home empty handed the first night. All of this because of my epidural.

I am not unique, although the statistics would tell you so. I don't know what I could have done to prevent my high blood pressure, and I guess it's better safe than sorry with the induction.

I tell you one thing...I will do EVERYTHING in my power not to be induced next time. All of these problems come DIRECTLY from the induction and epidural. It was horrible, scary, and unnecessary. Please think about getting a doula rather than an epidural.