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No. That sounds potentially expensive, depending on someone's insurance! Sometimes the anesthesiologist isn't considered part of the hospital stay, so someone could get an additional bill just for getting the line placed. I'd clarify with your OB, then call your insurance.

I'm not sure what you mean - like having the catheter put in to the epidural space but not putting any medication through it unless you need it?

@bluestriped bee: I don't work in L&D but it makes sense to me for twins or other complicated deliveries. I'm assuming you'll be in the OR because the chance of needing a cesarean is high. If they needed to do it quickly and the epidural was already in place they could just use it. If you didn't have it in place they would probably have to use general anesthesia.

@bluestriped bee: @Foodnerd81: Not a twin thing, as this wasn't an option for me. However, my dr (who had four unmedicated, water births herself) pretty much did not give me the option to go med-free. There are too many risks associated with twin births that you wouldn't want to not have an epidural. If I hadn't had an epidural (although mine had failed and they ended up giving me narcotics, but they did it through my Epi line) they would have had to knock me out when baby 2 needed to be born as an emergency C. Also, we were planning on a breech extraction if Blake moved from transverse to breech (which is actually preferred because it's easier for dr to reach in and pull baby's feet than its head). You would not want to do that without the meds!

My primary care physician ( family practitioner but doesn't do OB stuff, we discussed this anyway) recommends this, especially for VBAC situations so that you don't have to go under general in case of extreme emergency situations.