birth without epidural after pitocin

[AngelaS]

My first birth was induced by my midwife breaking my water. I labored for a while, my BP went super high (I had preeclampsia) and I got stuck in bed. I would up with pitocin and an epidural.

My second birth, my midwife broke my water to induce labor. I walked the halls, lounged in the tub and gave birth with no drugs. Totally awesome.

My third birth?? Induced by my midwife breaking my water. I walked the halls and labored for 12 hours. Then my labor stopped. Completely and totally. I got started on pitocin and continued to labor another 4 hours. By then, I was physically exhausted and asked for an epidural. I slept for 45 minuted, dilated another 4 cm and gave birth in 2 pushes. Awesome.

[ShanaMama]

Both my births were induced with Pitocin (my water broke & no labor) & I didn't have an epidural. With DD1 I had Stadol which is a narcotic type pain relief- takes away the brain but not the pain. I absolutely hated it because I'd fall asleep & only wake up mid-contraction with no chance to get a handle on it. I spent my entire second pregnancy telling my midwives I did not want narcotic pain relief under any circumstaces.
I would try to keep your options open WRT epidural. Honestly, epidurals scare me & I'd rather endure painful back labor. But I could not have done the labor without all the support I had. My midwife was with me the entire time & DH was incredibly supportive. I was walking around the hospital (my hospital has walking fetal monitors & I took a portable IV) & I was in the Jaccuzzi/ shower (off the monitor for a short time). I don't believe I would have been able to do it if I'd been laying on my bed for hours. That & the amount of support you get makes all the difference.

[ShanaMama]

That doesn't seem right, but I only have my own experience to draw from.

I had an IV, but I was able to walk around and do pretty much whatever I wanted until they put the epidural in. It's the epidural that kills any walking because of the numbing. The IV pump for the pit and fluids was on a wheeled pole & I dragged that around with me as I walked the hallway.

But, then again, I guess it's different from hospital to hospital? I delivered at a specialized hospital due to my DD's heart defect, and their maternity ward just celebrated its 3rd anniversary earlier this month.

Not sure if you had pitocin- that is what changes things. I believe the standard of care is continuous fetal monitoring once they give pitocin. It definitely varies from hospital to hospital & dr to dr but IME it is unusual to be 'allowed' out of bed once you are on pitocin. It's really logistics. See my pp- i was up & walking with a remote fetal monitor, but that is definitely only because my awesome midwife totally snowballed the standard hospital regulations. She also got into the shower with me & let me completely off the monitor for about 20 mins at a time. I don't know any dr. who will do that.

[AnnieW625]

We did Lamaze through our local hospital. I went to hospital and was admitted after having mild contractions and was 5/1/2 cm. dialated. After being stalled for 5 hrs. or so the nursing staff broke my water thinking it would speed things up; it didn't. Three hours later I got pitocin. In less than 3 hrs. I went from being completely stalled to 10 cm. I did get an epidural at the tail end and I was honestly suprised I even got one; the epidural made the pushing not hurt so much, and I was able to push with it; it took me an hour to push; my hospital's time limit for pushing was 2 hrs. So while I did get an epidural I did 98% of the hard work with pitocin and without any pain meds. I said never again would I want pitocin and for DD2 told my DH I wouldn't go to the hospital until my water broke, which is what we did.

DD1 was born at 37 weeks and was very healthy.

[swissair81]

My youngest baby was born after a brief pitocin labor and no epidural. It was definitely more painful than my other labors. Good news is that since my cervix was favorable and I was a few centimeters dilated, I was only on 2 mU when she was born. It was also only 2-2.5 hours of active labor. Very intense. I had a precipitous delivery- I told them the baby was nearly crowning and the nurse rang the emergency bell. My doctor nearly missed the birth and he was sleeping down the hall.

I was still walking around my entire labor. The cords were long enough, and I held them in place. My OB actually had no problem letting me take them off for short periods of time- but you can't do that with pit, so I improvised. I wasn't in bed at all my entire labor.

[lizzywednesday]

Not sure if you had pitocin- that is what changes things. I believe the standard of care is continuous fetal monitoring once they give pitocin. It definitely varies from hospital to hospital & dr to dr but IME it is unusual to be 'allowed' out of bed once you are on pitocin. It's really logistics. See my pp- i was up & walking with a remote fetal monitor, but that is definitely only because my awesome midwife totally snowballed the standard hospital regulations. She also got into the shower with me & let me completely off the monitor for about 20 mins at a time. I don't know any dr. who will do that.

Nope, I had pitocin and was permitted to walk the halls. And this was with a "high risk" birth.

There were L&D nurses and midwives attending the birth, but docs only for internal checks.

They tried the fetal monitor, but it wasn't sticking correctly consistently.

Again, it must vary from hospital to hospital.

[Tobermory]

hey, i'm new here, 31 weeks and also face induced birth so this thread is most interesting to me. my husband is a musician and will be on tour right after our due date and i can't imagine giving birth without him there and not having at least a couple of days family bonding time before he'll leave.
essnce629, i'm very interested in your castor oil regimen, unfortunately since i'm new i can't PM anyone yet.

[ShanaMama]

hey, i'm new here, 31 weeks and also face induced birth so this thread is most interesting to me. my husband is a musician and will be on tour right after our due date and i can't imagine giving birth without him there and not having at least a couple of days family bonding time before he'll leave.
essnce629, i'm very interested in your castor oil regimen, unfortunately since i'm new i can't PM anyone yet.

Welcome ! You will like it here....

[ged]

I've had 3 deliveries, all with no epidurals. The second and third were pitocin induced. For me, it was very painful either way. It hurts like crazy, but it eventually ends, and you forget how bad it was. You can do it!

[Tobermory]

thanks shanamama! and also thanks ged. encouragement is always helpful. did anyone here read "birthing from within"? i found this book incredibly empowering and encouraging.