The physicians in the Department of Anesthesia may help care for you while you labor by placing and managing an epidural or providing an anesthetic if you were to require a C-section or other surgical treatments. In this video, Dr. Angela Grab, anesthesiologist, goes over the basic information you should know prior to having an epidural placed.
Evaluations and risk considerations
First, before an epidural can be placed, you will need to be evaluated by an anesthesiologist to assess if an epidural is a safe choice for you. The main benefit of the epidural is to decrease your discomfort while you labor and deliver your baby.
Some women may have very little sensation once the epidural is in place. While others may still feel some degree of discomfort, it's also not uncommon to have a different experience each time you have an epidural placed during labor.
There are also risks associated with epidurals, but rest assured that these are rare. In a healthy woman, the most common risk is not being happy with the pain relief you will get from your labor epidural. As with any medical procedure, there are risks involved. If you have questions about other risks associated with getting an epidural, please discuss this with your provider as part of your birth planning.
Positioning and placement
Next, we will go over how to sit for the epidural and what most patients feel during the procedure. You may have one support person in the room during the procedure, and we request that they remain seated for the duration of the epidural placement.
Your nurse will help position you on the side of the bed. Please try to avoid sitting in the crack at the foot of the bed. You'll attempt to curve your spine around your baby while you let your head and shoulders relax forward and don't lean to the left or right. It's very important to avoid movement during the catheter placement. Please speak up if you wish to move so we can adjust what we are doing. While placing the catheter, you will feel a very strange pressure sensation in your back, but that will go away once the catheter is in.
Once the catheter is in, your anesthesiologist will begin administering medications to help relieve your labor pains. The procedure usually takes a few minutes, but due to differences in anatomy, it can take much longer and require multiple attempts.
If you have any concerns or questions, please feel free to discuss them with your anesthesiologist today.
