Hi

1st epi for cs made me spew, shake and feel very hazy. Just for labour pain relief your dose isn't high enough (usually) to experience these side effects. As long as you can still feel your legs and get up to pee most mums seem to be happy with them. You do need IV access and some find that epi and IV slow or even stop contractions.
I had my epi in from Fri night to Mon morn, I used it 3 times post op and begged them to take it out all day Sat, they forgot about me Sat night shift, by Sun I had a fever, antibiotics made me spew, rashy and hives (even in my stretch marks) I was miserable and wasn't helped out of bed and hadn't showered (I felt gross!) Mon morn the pain of having it removed and the relief combined made me spew again! This is a pretty extreme example based on a cs though so don't freak out

2nd epi had laboured nearly 24hrs and gave into the epi as a compromise as was getting pressured to have cs. Was not in pain, just a bit tired and really annoyed that I gave in. Contractions slowed and weakened (But also could be cause I was confined to bed and monitoring, starving and dehydrated!!!) Still ended up with cs OB bascially arrived to harrass within mins of epi going in. Still had same reaction to drug BUT this time had removed within 24hrs and much less back pain (YIPEE!)

Planning vba2c for #3 and definately avoiding hospital and epis!