epidural side effects

There are immediate side effect and after effect for both mother and baby. The lists are Long and I just state a few common one. These side effects to the mother including drop in blood pressure that can cause cardiac arrest, others are shivering, skin itchiness, vomiting, fever, slowing down labour and requires more drugs use in the birthing process. The side effect to the baby includes fetal distress, passing of meconium during labour which requires emergency cesarean, separation of mother and baby after birth, interfering with mother baby bonding and breastfeeding. Low APGAR score meaning that baby is less responsive, weak muscle tone etc as compare to natural birth baby, higher risk of jaundice that requires more pricking and testing, requires phototherapy and mother baby separation again and put much stress to the baby emotional well being. Epidural is an effective form of pain relief for the labouring mothers who are unable to relax and much in distress. But it comes with Long list of side effects for both Mother and baby. There are alternatives method of birth such as water birth or learn HypnoBirthing, a deep relaxation techniques and natural childbirth education that enable you to birth comfortably relax. You may want to read this. http://sarahbuckley.com/epidurals-risks-and-concerns-for-mother-and-baby

Most women don't experience any side effects after getting an epidural. A headache is probably the most common side effect and can happen if the needle used to place the epidural catheter accidentally punctures the dural membrane of the spine. This puncturing causes the leakage of cerebrospinal fluid and leads to what's known as a spinal headache. But not to worry, it only happens in 1-2% of epidural catheter placements. While it was initially thought that the epidural is associated with back pain after delivery, more recent data shows no link between the two. And thankfully, nerve damage is a very rare complication. In my opinion, it is all in the head because of the impression we are "fed". Most new mummies experience backaches from the poor posture they are presenting.

Thankfully, my side effects from epidural is only during labour time. I had shivering and vomiting during labour. After labour, i vomited another 3 times to expel the drug in my system. I did not experience any headaches or backaches like what many mummies have claimed. I feel that it's about posture during your recovery period after birth. The constant late night feeding or bending over the cots will add on a strain onto your back. So remember to lie down more often and watch your posture!

Most of my friends mentioned there is no side effect from using epidural e.g. no backpain. But I have a few friends mentioned they experienced vomitting and shivering after taking the epidural during labor. For me, even though I did not use epidural during labor, I experience some backpain occasionally and I guess it is due to my poor postures in lifting baby up and carrying baby.

I didn't take any epidural (used gas relief instead), but one of my friends took it recently and got nerve damage on her leg because of wrong injection site for the epidural. The more common ones are already stated by other mums!

Skin itchiness, vomiting and fever during and after labour. Vomitting stopped half a day after labour. Fever and itchiness of skin also subsided slowly.

Not for me, but each contraction was accompanied by a surge of shivers. If you ask me, I'd rather the shivers than having to relive the labour pains!

No, I didn't have any side effect from epidural. I attribute the back ache to be part of the usual mommyness routine :)

my Lo is going to 4 months old now ,till now i'm having backache and my knee is weak bcoz of epidural..

yes ... im always having strong pain in my back~ cause i've already having 2 times epidural ..