Hi

Is the usage of Epidural injection (for painless delivery) good during delivery? Does it have any future side effects?
What are the pros & cons?
Has anybody in this forum taken Epidural during delivery, and if yes, can you share the experience?

Thanks
Nupur

Hi!
My wife took it ar. joeseph's hospital.
Epidural is best for people who are afraid of pain during delivery. The only con. is that if the doctor is not a good doctor (normally and personally i donot belive at all in any canadian doctors) and by mistake when placing the epidural needle they touch the spine , it can lead to paralyzing spine dosorder. This also occurs if the patient moves (due to impulse or coldness of the needle) when the doctor places the epidural on the spine. I would recommend that the doctor who does this has atleast 20 years of experience.
we (by coincidence) had a lady european doctor who was around 70 years old. she had worked in WW2 and also in nairobi etc.. Her hands shaked but she did a good job.
We had anyway no choice. We had to take the epidural come what may since my wife was even afraid to let the doc. examine her.
Another con may be that while in epidural you are painless and when they tell you to puch hard, you may push harder than what your normal body can take and you can have piles after delivery.
for any other clarification please PM me or E-Mail to me.
Thanks
TK

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

1. Epidural is safe in expert's hands. However there is always some risk of procedure going wrong. But it avoids most of pain.
2. If you are not afraid of some pain, perineal injections of local anaesthetics are quite OK, as most pain is avoided and you keep a feel of the entire procedure. There are hardly any side effects.
3. Traditional deliveries without any anaesthetics are still practiced in rural India, but that is not recommended as assisted delivery is always better.

In any case, try to have full faith in your doctor, after all the procedure is essentially "wait and watch". It is purely natural, there is no place for any fear. Painful maybe, fearful no.

I took it and it was the worst thing I did coz it prolonged my labour. - 16 hrs. the nurses were telling me not to and i didnt listen i wish i had.

hey..
my wife did take the Epidural when our son was born.. it is safe if done by an experienced doctor.... I have heard of cases where after the delivery and that too after 6-8 months the person complains of back pain..
but those r very rare cases....
When Epidural is given, at that time noone is allowed in the room, not even the husband..[ I was told to leave the room when this was given to my wife at Scarborough Grace Hospital]..
Good luck to you.

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Amit Shah
Financial Advisor
Cell : 647-296-2609

At st. joseph's hospital i was there when epidural was given. The doctor actually told me to hold my wife. So i guess this depends on the doctors. May be that doc. needed concentration.
And another thing , In canada Epidural is encouraged if the patient does not say other wise. The beauty of epidural is that it prolongs labour. At St. joe's (during my wife's delivery) only 1 doctor was there for 6 or 7 cases incl. 2 C-sections. So the doctor came when she was free (after 15 hrs . of labour in the hospital and 36 hrs. labour over all), and did a vacum delivery ( this is banned in USA). So that is why i hate the medical system here. They take our taxes and then the supposedly free health care is no good.
and FYI, though my wife was in labour , Canadian hospitals refuse to admit patients till their contraction is less than once in 5 mins. My wife suffered from contarctions ranging from 7 to 10 mins. for 21 hrs. we came 2 times to the labour ward and were told to go home. The 3 rd. time also they would have rejected us but for a pak. doctor who gave some drips to ease the pain and to increase the contaction. Thank god that worked and the contraction became less than 5 mins. and she was dilated more than the min. diameter needed for admission to a canadian hospital.after she was admitted and given epidural the contarcion again came to once in 10 mins. So they did something else to increase the contraction time (forgot what it was )
Any way this is my personal opinion.
Can others post their peeves in the medical system in Canada. This would really help to document immigrant medical system woes.
Thanks
TK

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

My wife took the epidural and she was absolutely fine. There is some risk associated to it as mentioned by others, but only in rare cases. It helped her a lot with the delivery.

Overall, the staff at Trillium Hospital in Mississauga was fantastic. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

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