Reply to how common is it for the anesthesiologist to refuse to give an epidural?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Kinda shocked that women would go into labor without a backup plan if the epidural fails or they're in too quick of a labor to get one. [b]Spend 15 minutes and read on pain management techniques and breathing. You're not guaranteed and epidural. [/b]

Wanting an epidural is not the same as needing one for a medical procedure like an amputation or a c section. Yes the pain is excruciating but you aren't going into shock from it. [/quote]
 :roll: I took Bradeley classes and I still ended up needing an epidural for my induction; I can assure you that was a little more than 15 minutes' worth of preparation. What the heck is wrong with some of you? Just stupid easy births and shocking lack of empathy?[/quote]

I planned on an unmedicated birth but after I was on Pitocin, forget it -- and I labored for *hours* on Pitocin before finally caving and asking for the epidural. (The doc was giving other epidurals at the time, so I had to wait an hour during which I dilated from 2 cm to 6 cm; it was the worst hour of my life.)

Yes, I can see in hindsight that if the doc had refused an epidural for my health, dealing with the pain of childbirth is preferable to being dead or disabled from a bad epidural. But let's not pretend like women who ask for epidurals in labor are some sort of special snowflakes asking for something unreasonable. Childbirth is extremely painful, and epidurals are a common form of relief from that pain. A woman should only be denied for a serious, potentially deadly/disabling condition.[/quote]

You can get limbs amputated without anesthesia as long as you go quickly before the body can go into shock. You cannot get a csection without anesthesia as the shock would kill you. Obviously women have birthed without epidurals for millennia. It's possible, but it might just be the worst day of your life. And in my mom's group I know plenty of women who did it without epidurals, half willingly and half unwillingly due to conditions outside their control. Second babies come very fast.

Additionally, there are other pain medications and local injections you can get if you can't get an epidural. Nitrous Oxide would be preferable but not all hospitals have it.

I had a similar experience - pitocin induction without epidural until 6cm, wait for epidural being horrifically painful. Literally no one is saying that laboring women who get epidurals are special snowflakes asking for unreasonable things. The point was that given the circumstances that prevent an epidural from being administered, whether those circumstances are a medical condition that makes the epidural dangerous or the anesthesiologist not being able to arrive in time to administer it, it would be good preparation to at least consider how you will cope with potentially excruciating labor pain, rather than taking the attitude which I’ve heard from multiple friends and probably dozens of women in this broad that such preparation isn’t necessary because they will just get an epidural.

There are many medical advances that have greatly reduced the suffering associated with physical experiences like labor and delivery and medical experiences like surgery, but the reality is that things like epidurals ARE comfort measures, not medical necessity. People DID get limbs amputated without anesthetic historically. It was awful. I wouldn’t want to do it. But saying that it’s necessary is just ridiculous. [/quote][/quote]

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