QuestionI am 24 years old I have 3 children and I have never had menstrual period as far as i know my wife however is 25 and has 2 children one that was born about 1 day ago 11/3/05 and her last menstrual period was approximatly the middle to end of january
My question is about the process or common practice of epidurals. First I would like to say that I am not medically savvy I dont know hardly anything about medical jargon. However I was hoping that you could help me to understand what happened to my wife yesterday. The situation started when the doctor advised us that after 17 hrs of labor with potocin to escalate the process my had only dialated 3 cm so she adv that we would need to have a cesarean birth. My wife of course was not happy but with some counseling we decided that it would be the best choice however when it came time for her to recieve the epidural.
the anestetic doctor placed and remove the epidural tube in her back at least three different times to no avail she recieved no relief from the pain and was only caused more pain by the process of her laying down and getting up to remove the tube that was strapped across her back and into the area below her spine near the tail bone. Eventually the gave her another type of epidural that went directly into her spine where they actually removed some spinal fluid.
My question is what would cause the previous three epidurals to not work effectively and is this a common incidence where epidurals sometimes do not stop the pain
AnswerYour wife, obviously, had "failure to progress on pitocin" and due to the fact that her cervix never dilated past 3cm, in spite of being on pitocin to stimulate the contractions, the only way to deliver the baby was by cesarean section. There are three methods of anesthesia for a cesarean section. The best is epidural anesthesia where medication is introduced around the spinal cord (but not into it), thus "bathing" the area with anesthetic. An epidural takes a bit longer to achieve, but lasts around two hours and numbs the patient below the waist. It is very safe and by avoiding entrance into the spine, no cerebrospinal fluid escapes. Sometimes, hoever, it does not work to alleviate the discomfort. A spinal anesthesia also numbs the patient from the waist down, but a needle is introduced into the spinal canal and some cerebrospinal fluid escapes. The anesthesia is instantaneous but there are more side effects. Very often, the patient will have a headached that lasts for days. The only other method of anesthesia for cesarean section is general anesthesia where the patient is put to sleep. This is more dangerous for the mother as well as for the baby. In order for an epidural to work, the needle has to get in the exact right spot between the vertebrae. This sometimes is very difficult and, since they were not successful three times, they opted for a spinal. Usually, an epidural works very well and is the preferred method of anesthesia.
