What do you know about epidurals and spinals? I want to know more. This is my understanding so far as a non-medical person who's never had either.

- An epidural takes a lot longer to put in than a spinal. It goes into a different space and is more fiddly to insert the thing.

- If you might need an epidural for pain relief, it's good to get it in early on, before your contractions are so strong it's hard to sit still for it, and to make sure the anaesthetist is there and has time to do it.

- You can have the epidural in, but not have any drugs put into it. This means you are not attached to anything and can move around freely, (can you still go in the bath?) and it's quite quick and easy to put the drugs in. You can have the canula thing in your hand, ready for saline drip, but nothing attached to it.

-Once drugs go into the epidural you can't move around, and they'll want to put the saline drip in and hook you up to monitors.

-The epidural drugs lower your blood pressure and do affect the baby. It can affect the progress of your labour.

-It takes about 15 to 20 mins for the epidural drugs to take effect, and they can vary the amount of drugs they put in it.

-For a C/section they usually prefer a spinal to a GA these days, and a spinal is much quicker and easier to do than an epidural. A spinal cannot go in the same thing as your epidural, it's a separate procedure because they're going into a different space in the spine.

I want to know more in case I need either this time. What else can you add? I'll post any extra info I find.