I disagreed 8-[

When I had my epidural it was not medically necessary, but IMO it was absolutely totally necessary for my mental state. I was not coping well at all after having contractions for 26hrs and less than 5hrs sleep in the previous 48hrs & I felt that I needed it as I was at the stage of completely freaking out.

If you were to class mental health reasons in the area of "medically necessary" I would most definately change my answer to agreeing with the statement.

I know that support is a big thing for the mental aspect of labour & birth, but I had a wonderful midwife that was with me the whole time, Aaron & my mum telling me how fantastic I was doing, but it wasn't enough. I was freaking out & needed something to calm me down and relax, which was the epidural as it gave me a break from the contractions.