How long did you wait for your epidural?

[Miss E]

I had mine within about 20 minutes of requesting it.

I don't want to start a whole debate on public vs private, but anecdotally it seems to me that it often takes longer in a public hospital. I personally know 3 women who had them in public hospitals and had to wait anywhere between 2 and 5 hours. The one who had to wait 5 hours was given 2 shots of pethidine in the meantime and when her baby finally arrived she had to spend the first night in SCN due to her LO being very groggy from the pethidine. The other couple of women I know who have had them in a private hospital all had it within an hour....

[Taurean]

30 minutes from when I screamed for one to when I was pain free Private hospital, around noon on a Saturday.

[Beautitude]

Mine never arrived for ds2. Waited an hour and then DS had to be delivered due to distress and the anesthetist arrived 15 minutes after he was born. Not sure how long I waited with ds1. Think it was only about half an hour.

[Sagres]

I waited about 20-25 minutes I think. This was in a small hospital and I was the only one labouring so there were no anesthetists floating around waiting for me. The hospital uses an agency that has lots of anesthetists on call and they just call in whoever is closest or already at work.

[krystals]

My anaesthetist was on call too, and he lived 'up the mountain' so they'd told me he'd be an hour and a half getting there, I think my midwives were actually trying to say 'You might have this baby within the next hour and a half, by the time he gets here, you won't need it'. I actually have no idea how long it took before I got the epidural, I know he was very quick, efficient and caring when he administered it. I was lucky that it went in so quickly- it was at least another 2 1/2 hours after I got the epidural when Jacko was born. He was in NO hurry.

[misty]

All my hospitals have told me that it would take about 30mins to arrnage for the anesthesitis to arrive and be ready to adminster, provided they were actually at the hospital and available (ie, not busy with another patient). Either way, I have never really had an oppertunity, because my labours progress too quickly.

[little_mrs]

Mine took about 2hrs from when I asked to it going in, mainly coz it was 12 midnight on new years eve when I asked for it (around 2:30am new years day when i could finally breath calm again!) and the hospital was busy with drunken idiots, and coz my contractions were so close and intense it took ages to take the blood tests before I could have the epidural. My labour went for 7hrs before, 2hrs waiting and another 10hrs after the epidural kicked in so I'm very glad I had it!

[FabFiona]

They rushed mine as my OB was worried I was going to have a stroke due to extreme blood pressure. I reckon he was there in about 5 mins from when we agreed to have one.


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[young_mumma87]

for my DS the doc told me at around 10am they were breaking my waters and i was having an epidural they broke may waters at around 11;30ish after they did that i asked to have a shower they said yeah no worries the antithesis (sp?) will be a while so they made the gas longer to reach in the shower and as soon as i stepped under that water in he walks.. so around 15 minutes i remember after he was done it was around 12-12:30 took him four goes to get it in though as i overdoseed on the gas twice and he was having a go at me at my tattoo not being centered!!!!

[~me~]

First time it was less than 20mins. They got the Anaesthetic up out of bed (it was midnight), he only lived around the corner.
2nd time was around 20mins.
3rd time not at all, had my waters broken by the OB and then he was in straight after.

2nd and 3rd time round I got one of those trigger ones I could control, it was great.

[Mother Goose]

I waited 90 minutes for him to arrive and then it took him an hour to get it in. No lie. I have calcified ligaments in my back (which we discovered that day!) and it took way too long. If he hadn't got it in that last time, I wasn't going to be getting one

Heather, can I ask where you had your last 2? Sounds like you may have had remifentanyl which is a relatively new thing during labour in Vic. I've been trying to find a hossy that does it for when I eventually have #2 (if I go for a VBAC)

[~me~]

Heather, can I ask where you had your last 2? Sounds like you may have had remifentanyl which is a relatively new thing during labour in Vic. I've been trying to find a hossy that does it for when I eventually have #2 (if I go for a VBAC)

I had all my babies at Frances Perry. DD was at the new Frances Perry.

[EsJay]

i had specified no pain relief, and through all the issues i had during labour i kept saying no pain relief, so when i did finally ask for an epi, my m/w told me she wanted me to wait and hour to make sure i really wanted one (i guess thats a good thing right?? i wasnt in much pain they just couldnt break my waters as it hurt so much when they tried) so after the hour she said do you still want it i said yes and the aneasthetist sp? walked strait in and did it. they told me when booking in, antenatal classes and every visit that 15mins max is their aim (private hospy). When dd got distressed and i had to be taken for emergency c/s again the aneasthetist walked strait in to top my epi up for that.