Hi Britt,

you'll have no problem getting an epidural at St George Pvt. You may or may not be examined before you have one. After you have one, you'll be continuously monitored, the midwife will insert a catheter into your bladder, you'll have a drip, and you will be restricted to being on the bed. This can slow the labour considerably, so the midwives may need to add syntocinon to the drip to make the contractions stronger, longer and mroe frequent. This can, in some cases cause your baby to be distressed. Depending where you're up to in your labour, this will lead to a caesarean, forceps, a vacuum, or an episiotomy.

So, that's epidurals. They don't do waking or low-dose epidurals there.

The other options are - using water (bath) in your labour, Calmbirth, learning relaxation techniques, gas, position changes, massage, reflexology, hot packs, and probably many others. These are all risk-free.

Melissa.