That’s why just over half of women choose to have an epidural, according to a Wiser Pregnancy survey. 

Not into the epidural? There are other pain relief options to choose from:

• Natural pain relief – Breathing and relaxation techniques – including massage, visualization or hypnosis – can help put you at ease and distract you, whether you choose another form of pain relief or not. 
• Analgesics and narcotics – These meds are injected into your thigh or butt via IV.  They temporarily decrease the perception of pain.
• Local anesthetics – These are injected directly into the tissue around the vagina to numb it before enlarging the opening with a cut (called an episiotomy) or repairing a tear. They provide temporary pain relief to a small area of the body.
• Pudendal block – This painkiller’s injected into the wall of the vagina to temporarily block pain between the vagina and anus. If your doctor needs to use forceps or vacuum extraction to deliver the baby, if you tear, or if you have an episiotomy, you may have a pudendal block.
• Spinal block –This painkiller’s injected into the fluid-filled space surrounding the spinal nerves. The effects are almost immediate and provide complete pain relief from the chest down for up to two hours. If there’s not time for an epidural (which takes around 20 minutes to go into effect), your doctor may recommend a spinal block.

But getting anxious about the pain won’t help you – or your baby. Instead, be prepared and discuss your options with your doctor before D-day.

For more information about epidurals and other pain relief options, click here. 

What pain relief options are you considering?  If you’ve already delivered once, what did you do, and how did it work for you?

Related posts:

1. Birthing Class Doesn’t Impact Epidural Use
2. Survey: Half of Pregnant Women Have Heartburn

So what influences a woman’s decision? Peer pressure, concern about the baby’s health, bragging rights? Sure, those can all be powerful influencers.

But what doesn’t seem to play a role is the birthing class a woman attends. Wiser Pregnancy’s recent survey of pregnant women found the following:

• 46% have attended or plan to attend a childbirth education class.
• 65% have had an epidural during delivery.
• 53% who have gone to childbirth education classes have said that the class didn’t help or only somewhat helped them prepare for labor and delivery.

That last statistic, in particular, is pretty interesting. More than half the women who took a birthing class found that it didn’t help or only helped a little.

Whether the choice is Lamaze (which doesn’t advocate for natural or painkiller-assisted birth) or Bradley (which supports natural birth), it turns out that women have pretty much made up their minds about an epidural, regardless of the class.

Another possibility: The class didn’t impact their epidural decision as much as the birthing circumstances.
Some pro-epidural women may find that the progression of their labor makes it impossible. Others may have planned a natural birth but decided they needed pain relief once labor started.

The fact is, most women find giving birth painful. But every woman is different, and so is the level of pain. For some, childbirth is excruciating; for (lucky) others, it hurts but less than a fractured rib or a previous surgery.

So while the factors going into whether or not to get an epidural may vary, the birthing class they choose doesn’t seem to be one them.

What about you? If you attended a birthing class, did it help you decide whether or not to get an epidural? And did you change your mind when you went into labor?

Related posts:

1. Birthing Class Philosophy: Not So Important to Women
2. 1 in 4 Doctor-Moms Attend Birthing Classes
3. Half of Pregnant Women Opt for Epidural