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I didn't want an epidural while pregnant, but my labour was long and all in my back and I was spent. We got to the hospital at 10:30pm and on the way, my midwife called the hospital and told them to get the room and get the anesthesiologist ready to greet us. Ha!

The hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life was sit still during the 4 contractions it took to get the epidural in. I wanted to die. But as soon as it was in, I felt like I had super powers. It did make me a bit queasy, but that could have been coinciding with when I was in transition. I had remarkable control of my legs despite not being able to feel the pain of contractions. It wore off pretty quickly after she was born and I went home about an hour after it wore off. All in all, a great experience!

Getting the epidural sucked because I was throwing up so badly. He also had to place it twice because the first time didn't work or something? I'm not sure if they explained what went wrong because I was puking my guts up. Anyway, it failed about an hour later. I progressed very quickly from there (went from 3-10 in about 3.5 hrs) so they re-upped my epidural before pushing, by it faded again soon after. A couple hours later they tried again and it numbed me up to my neck! I started passing out between pushes, but it faded again! Right before I delivered (4 hrs into pushing) a new anesthesiologist came on shift and gave me another dose of whatever through my epidural line. That was pretty good. (I have twins so my dr was insistent that it be working properly in case of an emergency with either baby. I think that's why they kept trying to give me more). Anyway, baby B ended up being an emergency C and I was screaming about feeling everything, so the anesthesiologist hooked me up with all the meds so I'd be covered in case the epi wore off again. I remember him telling me I wouldn't feel anything for 24 hrs and he was right! (Of course I wasn't really feeling any of the cutting but I was panicked that I would feel it!)

I did not want an epidural but after 26 hours of back labor & a baby who refused to turn, the midwife wanted to give me pitocin so I got an epidural! I made it to 9cm naturally. It was on very low and I could move my legs quite well. I also felt everything while pushing for 2 hours. I had a very small tear but boy did I feel those two sitches being placed!

They were amazing Mine were both super easy and I got them pretty early on. The hardest part was trying to sit still through the contractions.

I was induced and had a 43 hour labor. I got it about 12 hours before T was born when my water broke on its own. I was dilated quite a bit 6 or so but it was not painful until then. My epic failed about 8 hours labor after I had been pushing for 2 hours. I refused to push in the 2 hours it took to get in working- in that time she lowered on her own to the proper station and 2 more hours of pushing later she was born.

It went in great and then wore off during the last 30ish minutes of pushing The ring of fire is no joke!

Both experiences were great. Simple and worked well. I could feel my contractions while pushing, and recovery was a breeze.

First kid: epidural was amazing. Administered early enough and had one revision on it near delivery.

Second kid: took awhile to get despite begging for it in triage because of bloodwork and blood pressure issues. Once I got it, the happy effects lasted about two hours. Baby was putting so much pressure down there that it really didn't do much for pain relief. The pressure outweighed the epidural. If anything, it helped immediately postpartum especially when they pushed the pitocin to help shrink the uterus.

It was ok - I didn't really know what to expect but my whole right leg went completely numb and I didn't really like that. I ended up with a C-section anyway but overall I didn't have any issues.

I had a long induction with LO1 and the epidural was great initially but then shifted some and was no longer working. A nurse from anesthesiology came and pushed a bolus through it to see if it was out of place or just required more meds, the bolus did nothing so she said the anesthesiologist would need to come replace it. Unfortunately there were c-sections going on and he never got back so I got to finish dilating and push naturally.

It was amazing. I was so pissed that they wouldn't give it to me for LO2! I refused to push because I wanted them to give me the epidural first but they wouldn't

Mine was beautiful. I am allergic to a lot of pain killers so they were hesitant to give me an epi to begin with but they allowed one with fentynal. My only issue is that the freezing was wearing off on my left side quickly. I was not able to hold my own legs as I pushed. I could feel the contractions and was able to push but I could not support myself at all on the right side.

Amazing.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant! With DD1 it was the dream epi and took every last bit of feeling away, but I was still able to push DD out within an hour without feeling the slightest bit of pain or pressure.

With DD2, it didn't work quite as well - it took about 90% of the pain away but I just felt achy and couldn't get comfortable. Still didn't feel any of the pain of pushing and DD was born quite quickly so it was good overall.

Hoping for a repeat of the experience with DD1 when I have this next baby!

Awesome--especially for not having wanted one at all before going into labor! I think about 12hr after my water broke I finally asked for the epi since 2 IV doses of pain meds didn't touch the pain I was feeling. I felt like it was all in my back & that I would have trouble pushing without getting it. Turns out that was good thinking, because I didn't deliver for another 10-11hrs, and had a PERFECT epi where I could support my weight & lift my hips up, but felt no pain. I had control of the button & got another "push" of drugs as I started to feel pain again, which was half or less than their set max hourly dose allowed by the machine administering the doses. I stopped pushing my button when I was fully dilated & got to push, so probably 1 hr before LO was born & that seemed to work well enough to have enough feeling to feel effective on pushing, but not miserable. I did feel the stitches they placed, which was not exactly fun, but was over reasonably quickly.

my epidural sucked.... I got it about 2 hours after being put on the drip as labour had stalled (12 hours in) and it numbed only up to my hips. I could feel every contraction, but couldn't feel anything else and was unable to push effectively. It wore off soon after baby was born, and OB had to give me a shot while he was stitching me up.

@wrkbrk: Sometimes the epi isn't hooked up directly to the IV, giving the continuous flow. For example, with mine the nurses were injecting medication directly into the line that was taped to my shoulder. I think it was because it was a bit quick between the epi being put in and me needing to push? No idea, but it annoyed me!

@FannyMae: @youboots: Gotcha. I have always wondered about this!!

@wrkbrk: Before I was induced, I read about Epidurals and was so confused at the thought of Epidurals not working. I think I heard fading, wearing off and failing.

This response from an anesthesiologist (check 3rd or 4th comment) helped me understand how this could happen.

http://community.babycenter.com/post/a31419969/failed_epidural

So my epidural was great, but I'll say that I had hardly no pain before the epidural was placed when I was 6cm. Since I was pregnant with twins, I wanted to make sure I was conscious for the birth of my twins. The rate of c-section was higher with twins and if I missed the window to get the epidural and needed a c-section that I might need to be put under by General anesthesia. I didn't want that.
So I'll say that I had an overall good experience with labor and epidural because I had hardly no pain before.
I am curious if I have another LO, how my pain will be.
Oh, I ended up with a failed induction and had a c-section because with continued increases of pitocin, I still did not progress past 6cm. Dr thpight I had an infection that was not caught or my uterus was simply tired because my water broke 6 weeks earlier.