Apparently they dont bother giving pethidine anymore cos it's crap I had it with my son and went to see the anaesthetist for a check over ready for this one she said don't ask for peth this time they have a new system that's in between gas and air and not as bad as epi where u have a needle in hand an press button the effect lasts 2 mins and is out of your system. she said peth is like ur drunk u can feel all the pain u just don't care lol so I'm not sure what I'm choosing this year just gas and air lol

i had to have one as had twins they sed id need it incase i had to be rushed to theatre. awful never again put it in wrong twice ended up with spinal block. have awful backache since havin it. never again

I had an epidural even though I had a short labour I was induced and the pain was intense plus other risk factors. I had a good experience with it, no issue getting it in, it worked yet I could still feel when I was contracting through pressure, I could still move about my legs just felt heavy and I was up and about an hour or so after them stitching me up, I didn't even need any help weeing while I had it as some ladies do have to have a catheter. ☺
For a couple of weeks after I did have a bit of back pain in the spot where it was, but 5 weeks post birth it's totally fine!
not everyone has the same experience though, I heard so many horror stories about it so was slightly against it, but it ended up been the best thing for me :)

I was up and about within 30 mins of them@cleaning me up with my 2nd one. The third prob 3 hours and fourth I demanded they take the catheter out as I could walk and they refused so I said I would remove it so they did. They don't work sadly in some cases bad luck

I had gas and air from 8cms :) pushed on nothing :) but then had to have a spinal due to complications with my daughter. I did not plan to have one. And would not plan to have it again. It worked fine and everything. It needed to be done. Didn't have a choice. But I hated not being able to walk for 24 hours. I had a catheter. I couldn't even get out of bed to pick up my daughter when she needed feeding. I couldn't even change my daughters nappy the first 24 hours :) All I could do was hold her and feed her xxx

i had one with my daughter because i had a long labour and was so tired i couldn't push so i had to have a forcep delivery. it took 2 attempts to get it in. after that, it was fine. however my back is still a bit sore from it nearly 3 months on. i was on gas and air and had a pethadine injection though before that. if it was a shorter labour, i think i would have done without the epidural xx

I had gas n air and dyomorphyn (how ever its spelled) and they had to wake me up during a contraction 😂🙈 x

Oh, that sounds scary. Did they know why it did not work for you a few times?

I've had 4 of them 1st failed only had partial block 2nd was fab third was given when I was 10cm was ok 4th was hell on earth. 7 attempts she kept hitting a nerve. Got someone senior in as I was in agony and not in labour at that point it was a planned epidural prior to induction with high bp. He came back did a spinal block first then put epidural@in but cos I couldn't feel if they were in the right place it wasnt. It wore off and I was in so much pain in my back and ended up with issues for the year after. U couldn't touch my spine near where it went as I used to go faint and feel funny. I ended up with nerve damage. This time I'm going to try pethadine and the gas and air as last time when it wore off I just used gas

Gas and air and pethadine?

Did you have any?

I would strongly advise against - there are other pain relief options with minimal side effects in comparison x x