Inductions & Epidurals: The Fear

"I'm going to want an epidural"

After speaking with a mummy very recently, I was inspired to write this blog post around inductions and epidurals. When people hear 'Hypnobirthing', they often think that to 'clarify' you need to birth without medication and without any intervention.

Let me make it clear, that this is absolutely not the case.

To birth your baby (as a pregnant person) only requires one thing. You. You need to be present at the birth. And of course you will be!

Admittedly, Hypnobirthing and antenatal education can make this easier as you will learn about what to expect and about your rights and options amongst so many other things! You will have done extensive research to make this experience work best for you.

My lovely friend and past client who we will call G for the purposes of this blog, knew how she wanted to birth from the offset. She was a mum who had prepared her birth bag from 27 weeks, she wanted to know everything about pregnancy, labour and birth with no stones left unturned - my ideal client! Our children are a similar age and we still chat weekly about all of our mum troubles and achievements, swapping stories and advice constantly and we both know just how fortunate we are to have one another.

I asked her if it was okay that I share her words in this month's blog post as I feel strongly about the fact that they need to be heard. I think so many of us go through our pregnancies thinking 'ooh no, I can't have that' or 'So-and-so will think ill of me if...' or 'but no other mum does this'. FYI, this feeling will always be present. The not enough feeling. And I'm telling you now that it does you no good to sit with this for too long. G made the decisions that were right for her and her family alone. She didn't question whether they were going to be right for someone else, even if she knew that others wouldn't choose the same pathway.

This is especially important when we are choosing our birth set up and pain management.

Now I'm not going to go into detail about what is involved in inductions and epidurals, or what other types of pain management and comfort measures there are available to you. My course dives into this. But what I am going to do is share with you something G had said to me via a voice note (who doesn't love them!). G was telling me that a friend of hers had had a recent traumatic birth experience after multiple interventions, including induction and an epidural.

I really loved her take on this.

"I still hear a lot of people say that their epidural was slow to take effect.

When I was pregnant, I knew through doing my research and speaking to so many people about birth, following positive birth accounts, reading birth stories, taking part in your hypnobirthing course that is the case with epidurals - usually if you ask for one, it doesn’t start working for a while (1-2 hours later).

I also knew that with my thorough research, the induction process could take a while to kick start too. So, I knew that as soon as I was induced, I wanted to ask for an epidural straight away. When I got to the hospital and used my B.R.A.I.N, obviously, I knew that I had to ask for the epidural there and then. Because I thought, well, by the time the induction is hopefully beginning to work (I’d already read a lot of things about induced labours), I’d thought I’m going to want an epidural. So I made that choice for me.

Unfortunately for my friend, she recently had a very unpleasant birth experience, after dipping in and out of her Hypnobirthing course, not applying and practicing techniques throughout her pregnancy and taking preparation advice with a 'go with the flow' attitude. She had a cascade of interventions including induction and then decided when her surges were very powerful, that she wanted an epidural. Of course, she then struggled with the fact that it 'wasn't working' and that she needed more drugs. It sadly turned into yet another negative story about birth and it's just such a shame to think that this was her story after what could have been such a great experience for her.

It's interesting actually because I could have had a really awful time too, if I’d have waited for the epidural and I just accepted 'going with the flow', because I didn’t read up on any of it. If I hadn't prepared and if I had not accepted or asked for an epidural because I wasn’t in ‘pain’ yet, (and I didn't know the consequences, good and bad), I’d have probably had a totally different labour. It's all down to my own research, my Hypnobirthing knowledge and application of my toolkit during pregnancy and labour that I'd had learnt within my sessions, that I felt so confident in my labour. I'm so pleased and proud of the labour I had and I will always champion my own birth. I loved it and I would do it all again right now!

It just shows that you NEED to do your research to have the labour you deserve.'

I don't think I need to say much else to close this blog post, do I?!

In fact, the only thing I will end on is this. Birth is safe, and fear is always of the unknown. We do not need to fear induction, including epidurals. So long as we have learnt about them and educated ourselves as to why they are used, when they are necessary and how they can help us, we can make the right decision for ourselves. If after learning about the above, you decide it's not for you, HUZZAH! You've taken the right steps to give yourself the best experience for you.

Thank you G for sharing such personal information and inspiring words. For those of you who are worried about an induction, any intervention including pharmaceutical drugs and epidurals, read up on them!

Or DM me on any of my platforms (Insta, Facebook, Email, Website, WhatsApp). I will always suggest a FREE 30 minute online consultation where we can chat more about your pregnancy and what I can offer you on a 1:1 course with me. Click below.

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I have also just announced my Mum-To-Be Hampers that are now available to PRE ORDER for January delivery. Your calm birth starter kit in a bag! Click below.

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Resources

Sara Wickham is a midwife and educator and has written some incredible books on the matter -

In Your Own Time and Inducing Labour are two that I would personally recommend. Follow her @drsarawickham on Insta

Follow me @breathe_and_birth_casey on Insta