Epidurals

Interesting. I agree that epidurals do increase the risk of further interventions being used and that is certainly supported in research, but I don't agree with some of the things in the article.
I found the statement that morphine causes oral herpes in 15% of women completely bizarre! Herpes is caused by a virus, not by morphine. That doesn't even make any sense whatsoever.
Also I think the statement that forceps are more likely when you have an epidural compared to vaginal deliver is acturate, but to say that the chance of giving birth without forceps is low, is not at all acurate. Most women who have an epidural will not have forceps used. In the health region I work at forceps are used in 7% of all deliveries, epidurals are used in 70-90% of deliveries.
 
What about the percentage of vacuum deliveries?
It seems that this is very high when the mothers have epidurals.

I am shocked by the number of mothers I?ve met whose babies were born by cesarean and forceps. Apparently the doctor can make a smaller cut on the mother if he uses forceps to get the baby out rather than using his hands!
 
Many articles discuss the possible outcomes epidurals have on further interventions on labour but not many mention their effects on breastfeeding.

Medela have an article on their web site called Epidurals and Breastfeeding http://www.medela.com/for-expectant-mothers/tips-and-solutions/44/epidurals-and-breastfeeding

I particularly agree with the sentence ?Mothers who take pain medicine during or after birth may need to be more patient while baby learns to breastfeed.?
 
I had an epidural w/ #1 and gas& air w/ #2 and didn't notice much difference in breastfeeding (other than *I* was more adept because I had experience).


I had a sister and sister-in-law who both had C-sections w/ both their kids and did full-on breastfeeding until the babies were 1 year and a bit older.

I have an acquaintance w/ C-section w/ both her kids and she breastfed until they were over 2.

So, while statistically epidural anaesthesia and C-sections may reduce or badly influence breastfeeding, there are plenty of women who do and go on to successful breastfeeding.

The above was written in the spirit of encouragement, not to argue w/ statistical evidence. :)
 
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I had emergency c section and baby was in hospital for over a week (without me) and we had no trouble breastfeeding. I did have to pump to get my supply going (and to give him some breast milk while he was in care) but even though he had bottle in hospital it didn't affect anything - he was a little slow gaining weight the first month so in retrospect i think the supply might have been a little slow but after that he was always really big for his age.

but i agree that an epidural may slow things down - i had mine way too early (on advice of doc) i was only 2cm dilated and not feeling any real pain but she insisted (for various reasons) and I was a little overwhelmed so agreed but I beleive it really slowed things down at this stage - but i think it is a godsend later on (maybe after 5cm) i guess it depends on the speed that things happen and your pain threshold but I could feel the pain through the epidural and it was not pleasant. for a first baby i would try to go naturally as long as possible (unless you opt for elective c section of course) but just my view
 
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