Just another chime in to say the epidural wasn’t an issue for me either. I had two during the delivery and only remembered about it when having a shower and finding the band aid.
There’s a heck of a lot going on and the stuff happening behind you doesn’t register.
That’s pretty much my point. A sinus infection or an earache really hurts, a lot. And it goes on, and on, and on.
Birth contractions, OTOH, (well, mine, anyway) start by being like 5 seconds long and 20 minutes apart. And they hurt less than having a cramp. After several hours they are maybe 10 seconds long and 5 or 10 minutes apart. At the end they are maybe 45 seconds long and one minute apart, and quite strong. But by then, it’s almost over. So, most of the time, perfectly comfortable.
I would by no means call a woman with a different experience a liar, there are so many variables. But I’d rather give birth than have a toothache, that’s for sure.
That’s fine. They will be faces of hunger, though.
I’ll second this.
I’ll third this, if only because they give you WAAAAY better drugs when you’re giving birth.
I see WhyNot’s on the case here, so no need for me to post much substantive stuff. I’ll give you a link to The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth. It thoroughly convinced me that natural childbirth was not only better for me and my baby, but that it was doable, which is the opposite of what our culture tells us. (Actually, in addition to ignoring real birth stories - and especially birthing reality shows- please tune out all the births on TV and in movies. They are utter bullshit.)
Oh, and after having one baby naturally, in a freestanding birth center, with no needles in my arm, hand, or spine, I decided to do it again, only with a bigger baby. And I would do it again in a heartbeat if I got accidentally knocked up.
Try to enjoy the good stuff, and congratulations!
I’d rather have a toothache than give birth. Its a different kind of pain, though. And even saying that, and having vivid memories of wanting to scratch the wallpaper off the walls (little rows of pink rosebuds) - it wasn’t so bad in retrospect. But everyone’s experiences ARE different. Which is why that birth plan…its a plan, to be thrown out the window without regret when things don’t unfold as anticipated.
You could anticipate an easy labor and go unmedicated, and decide to go whole hog for the meds when the contractions hit ‘for real.’ OR, you could decide to be medicated to high heaven, get to the hospital saying “this isn’t so bad, maybe I’ll ask for something in a little while” and never bother.
But whatever sort of labor and delivery you have, it will be yours, and with luck, it will be both a much bigger deal than you can have imagined - and a much smaller deal than you worried about.
A spinal tap (lumbar puncture) is not the same as an epidural.
For a start- spinal taps on paediatric patients are sometimes done without local anaesthetic.
If you are the sort of person who finds more information helpful, I’ll describe in detail the process of epidural/spinal anaestheia. If you find things like that make you more scared, feel free to skip over the rest of this post.
With epidural and spinal blocks the only needle you feel as sharp is the first one, used for the local anaesthetic. It is the same type of needle as the ones used to take a blood sample or give vaccinations, not a bigger one, and won’t feel any worse just because it is your back.
It will feel sharp and the local might sting (think of the local anaesthetic at the dentist), but only for a few seconds.
Then they wait until the skin and tissue is numb before inserting the spinal needle.
The spinal needle is longer (length of your finger, not knitting needle length), but is finer than the first needle, and you don’t feel it as pain or sharpness, just as pressure- like someone pressing hard on a small spot on your back.
Then, once the needle is in the right spot they either inject the anaesthetic and take the needle out (a spinal- like I had, which lasts for only a couple of hours, works immediately and can’t be topped up- ideal for planned c-sections), or they inject the drugs and leave a tiny tube in place (an epidural, which lasts longer, takes 10-20minutes to kick in fully, but can be topped up- ideal for labour). Spinals and epidurals are sited in slightly different places (within vs around) the spinal cord, which accounts for their differences.
You then have a weird warm feeling in your legs and backside, and before you know it your legs seem to belong to someone else entirely. I wasn’t particularly fond of that aspect- being temporarily paralysed is a bit freaky, but not horrible and I knew it would happen, which helped.
Spinals give denser pain relief and more paralysis than epidurals- some people with light epidurals can move around throughout their labours. I couldn’t even wiggle my toes while the spinal was working.
Because of the blood/brain (which, in this case includes the spinal cord) barrier the drugs used to provide maternal pain relief this way have less of an effect on the baby than drugs inhaled, ingested or injected by the mother.
I won’t link to them here, but you can Google images and videos of epidurals and spinals if you want to see the process (and the needles)…or not, if you don’t.
If you’re still reading, I hope that helped.
If I may offer some free advice that I didn’t see upthread, you might want to prepare now to stop people who will try to tell you their pregnancy/labor horror stories. I don’t know why it is that some women see a big belly and they feel compelled to share tales of long labor and pain and sick and who knows what all. Even complete strangers (I recall one woman in the mall :rolleyes: who I had never seen before) seem to come out of the woodwork and head straight for every pregnant person they see. If you formulate your response and start practicing it now, you should be able to deflect a lot of it. I wish I’d done that, although my husband and I had several laughs over these encounters.
I’m also a wuss about needles and pain. To this day, I turn away from the pointy thing and mentally go to a happy place while making an effort to relax so the phlebotomist has as easy a job as possible. Also, drinking lots of water before getting stuck makes it easier.
My baby is almost 26, and while I have memories of labor, I mostly remember concentrating on having a healthy baby. It was as if my pain didn’t matter. Frankly, some of the teenage years were worse than birth. 
Congrats and have a happy baby!!
In that case, congratulations.
For those days when you really need a laugh - I just stumbled on a review for the book Lets Panic about babies! and the website that spawned it.
Enjoy!
Heh. I liked, “Interpreting your babie’s cries: What’s that sound coming out of Baby’s face-hole?”
I’m having a weird feeling of vulnerability that I’m pretty sure is pregnancy related and I’m not liking it. I’ve lived in New York for almost 4 years and never felt unsafe for a moment but for the past couple of weeks when I’ve been out and about I’ve felt like I am in constant danger. I actually dug the pepper spray out of the bottom of my purse and I carry it around like I am going to have to defend myself against a mugging at every corner. My husband took the dog for a walk last night at 10 pm so she would calm the hell down and go to sleep when we went to bed later and I freaked out and made him take my pepper spray with him even though we’ve never so much as seen a rowdy kid in our neighborhood, let alone a criminal of some kind. Did anyone else ever feel this way or is this my own special brand of baby-related brain problems?
pbbth: First, I’m delighted for you! I’ve always enjoyed your posts and you seem like a fundamentally sensible person who will do just fine.
When I was 6 months pregnant with my son, I accidentally wound up in a very bad (at the time) part of town, and I was accosted by a bad guy; actually, a whole passel of 'em. Not sure what exactly the idea was, but it was nothing nice.
I climbed over a chainlink fence, something I had never done before in my life. With my tummy out to here.
Pregnancy may make you a little more sensitive from an endocrine standpoint, but it also makes you fierce like tiger when necessary.
Also, fear not the epidural needle. You really can’t feel it, just pressure. And anaesthesiologists are, IMHO, hella nice.
BUT, post-epidural, someone may have to help you keep your, ummm, self in position. leg-wise. You can’t feel them, heh.
And for God’s sake don’t forget to look when the little awesome one emerges. I did, darn it. I had really wanted to see that.
P.S. Ginger tea. Use real ginger cut up, and a little sugar. Ginger is really effective for nausea.
Don’t worry about it. I was especially protective of my person and my son when I was pregnant with my daughter. I was convinced I’d have some sort of calamity befall me, regardless of how benign my task. I could imagine in great detail exactly what would happen if I passed away. It was a horrid feeling and ebbed a bit when the baby was born, though you still feel a bit vulnerable afterward. And I still can’t read or listen to newscasts where children were harmed in an accident or due to abuse.
To repeat irishgirl: a spinal is not the same thing as an epidural. Also, a 5 year old is not the same thing as a grown woman. Also, we use numbing agents now, which we didn’t use 15+ years ago on children. In other words: aruvqan’s tale, while a good example of how someone could be terrified of having an epidural because of trauma in her past, isn’t really relevant to you at all. 
“You’re pregnant.” 
Yes, it’s totally within the realm of normal…pesky hormones. I got myself a good case of an anxiety disorder with my first, though, so if it begins to affect your daily activities (like, if you start avoiding going for walks because of the fear), then please tell your doctor about it. There are tips and techniques you can use to ease your anxiety, and there are of course medications should it become too severe to deal with.
Well, the concern in the OP about the baby’s lungs is the “general anesthesia” bit that pbbth was wanting. That does cross the placental barrier and can suppress breathing; as I understand it, so can pain relief such as Demerol or whatever they’re using these days for folks who don’t get epidurals but want something to take the edge off.
A c-section even with epidural might lead to breathing difficulties in some babies - the theory being that fluid gets squeezed out of the baby’s lungs during a vaginal birth, and not so much with a c-section. I don’t know if that’s still considered an issue or if they’ve found it to be not so true… my info is :::counts back to youngest kid’s birthday::: about 14 years out of date. I know my daughter had some breathing issues that were NOT because of the c-section itself, but because she was 6 weeks early.
Yes, natural childbirth is a good goal and avoids needles; you need to find out the hospital’s policy however, as some STILL insist on having an IV placed “just in case”.
And if you are in enough pain, you will WELCOME that epidural.
Oh, and CONGRATS!!! I know this was not what you had planned, but I’d bet you’ll get to that “YAY!!” place pretty soon!
Remember the difference between “accident” and “surprise”; Hopefully the little splutterling will quickly fall into the second category :).