Have been Googling epidurals & have seen my midwife. Still need to know much more, but have found out:

- you can have a c/section by topping up an epidural, but spinal is preferred. If you have one in anyway, they may just top it up.

-spinal works straight away, epi takes 5- 15 minutes. So I guess for some people they can work pretty quickly.

-headaches & back pain are common side effects.

-the epi is more inclined to slow your labour the earlier you have it.

-epi can be topped up but a spinal wears off after a couple of hours.

Mymagenta - yes Obs & midwives are in danger of losing skills such as delivering breech babies by relying so much on c/sections. I'm told I will get a consultant no matter what, so hopefully that equals experience. I'm public, so money has nothing to do with it, but for private patiients, especially in the US, I gather it does (see Misconceptions by Naomi Wolf).

Thanks for everybody's posts. Nell, that's weird how your epi couldn't be got going again with a top up. I know you had such a hard time. Was it the timing or something, like maybe it takes longer to work after the initial dose? Did they talk to you about it afterwards so you could get an understanding of why it happened that way?

Has anyone had side effects?

Has anyone been able to remain upright, sitting, standing, kneeling or squatting with an epidural going?