Last night was our second childbirth class and it was pretty fun too. We learned about labor and cervical changes, positions the baby can be in and pain relief.
Unfortunately the pain relief part leads me to a dilemma….I always figured I wanted an epidural. My friends recommended it and if somethng eases the pain, why not? BUT…..the hospital also has jacuzzis. I LOVE jacuzzis. There’s nothing that relaxes me like a hot bath, and a jacuzzi is even better. In fact, it’s been an unfulfiled fantasy of mine for years to have a jacuzzi in the house. I could probably spend the whole time in the jacuzzi if they’d let me….I’d end up more red and wrinkled than the baby.
Well, apparently once you have the epidural you can’t gt in the jacuzzi any more. I understand why. Once you have the epidural, apparently you can barely control the lower half of your body. (I can just picture myself making the ex carry me to the hot tubs — in fact, that’s a great thought, it’s just too bad the doctors and nurses won’t go along with it.) But dammit, now I’m gonna have to make a choice? Every hour or so I’ll have to decide if I want an epidural or if I want to hop back in the tub! I have a hard time choosing an ice cream flavor…now I gotta make this choice?
Oh well, if that’s the hardest part of my labor, I guess I’m in pretty good shape.
Well, you could do both. Why don’t you do the jacuzzi at the beginning, when the contractions are still somewhat bearable? Then, once in, you can decide what to do from there.
Yeah, once you have the epi, there is no moving. At all. It’s not bad, though. Kind of weird not being able to move, but by that point I was happy to have it (both times.)
Good luck! You can do it!
Comment by Sarcastic Journalist — February 20, 2006 @ 1:57 pm
Yep, that’s pretty much what I decided to do. I was surprised to find out how little you can move with an epidural, and right now I think the lack of movement would bother me, but I’m sure things will change once I’m actually in the middle of labor.
In last night’s class we watched birthing videos, and in one of them it was comical how fast one of the women signed the consent forms to receive an epidural. I was also very glad to find out the doctors and midwives in the practice I’m going to will give you an epidural right up till when you start pushing. I remember one of my friends lost out on getting an epidural because she didn’t ask for one till she was dialated too far. (But that was 10 or 11 years ago so I guess things have changed.)
Comment by singlemom — February 21, 2006 @ 9:04 pm