Epidurals and catheters

[Tobily]

I am writing my birth preferences at the moment.

With my daughter I was given a catheter when I had an epidural.
I have not completely discounted the possibility of having an epidural again, depending on whether I end up with another induction. However I am dead against having the catheter.

Does anyone know if they are likely to say "no epi" if I refuse to be catheterised?
Tks

[DoulaRelle]

I thought the two went hand in hand???? If you had an epidural you had to have a catheter - I will be watching this thread to see if it is otherwise! I had mine out about 2 hours after delivery, because I had feeling back and was able to stand to have a shower.

[christy]

Flea I think it depends on how anaethetised you are with the epi and the hospital policy. I "think" they use the catheter to stop urine leaks because you loose the sensation of needing to urinate for up to 12 hours with an epidural and usually urine leaks aren't small. I had my catheter out after 6 hours after my c/s because I got up & went to the toilet & told them I obviously could feel it then. They were happy to take it out. HTH!

[StrawberryMumma]

I agree Christy, I think it has to do with hospital policy and the situation. I did a short maternity prac when I was doing my nursing training and did see a mummy with an epi but no catheter. The problem with having no catheter is that they are often concerned that you will have urinary retention due to loss of sensation.
All the best.

Lee.

[EllyBoo72]

I too had a catheter when the epidural set in. To be honest i loved not having to get up to go to the toilet!!!
I thought the epidural was more of a drama for me.

[BellyBelly]

If you have a full bladder remember too that it makes less room for baby to drop down, plus you wont be able to get up and go to the toilet if you do have the sensations to go. But you can say no to anything of course - nothing is law, it's all policy.

[kahmanya]

I had no idea that you get a catherter with epidural!!! I had epidural with my last pregnancy but as soon as he inserted the epi, i fully dilated and jayden popped out after a couple of pushes, infact the anestheisist was still standing there and was totally dumbfounded. $600.00 down the drain!!!!:eek:

[Phteven]

I had an epidural with Yasin and no catheter but I did have to make sure that I peed once every 2 hours. Just as I started pushing the midwife did an in and out catheter ie she put it in and emptied my bladder and then removed it.

[Fi]

Hmmm - I gotta say I had no problems with the catheter at all. It was really good the next morning, cause there was no way I was goingto be able to get out of bed, and it saved having to get help to go to the loo.
Maybe you had a bad one? I couldn't feel mine until about 1hr before they took it out. To be honest, the IV was more hassle for me! I hate those boody things.

[Beckibee]

I had my epi first and then I allowed the catheter. It was somewhat of a necessity for me as I was dehydrated and they had to put bags of fluid into me whilst the synctocin was going. I saw how much pee was going into the bag and I know I wouldn't have been able to feel the need to pee. No way was I using a bed pan to pee either! *LOL*

So basically, I didn't feel it being put in; but as I had 2 top-ups on my epidural right before delivery; I didn't have it taken out until about 10 hours after Maddy was born. They came round at midnight asked us whether we could feel everything downstairs and asked if we wanted it taken out. They just got you to take a breath a breathe out as it was pulled out. Didn't really hurt much at all; neither did the first pee afterwards although my girlie bits felt a bit smooshed by it if that makes sense?

[Tobily]

I had an epidural with Yasin and no catheter but I did have to make sure that I peed once every 2 hours. Just as I started pushing the midwife did an in and out catheter ie she put it in and emptied my bladder and then removed it.

A-ha! This is exactly what I'm looking for this time Dachlostar...
A few q's if you don't mind
Did you have your bub in a hospital or birthing centre?
Did you have a low dose epi so you could walk to the loo or a full one and pee in the bed with a container (you don't have to answer that if you don't want to LOL)
Did they give you the option with the catheter or did you say flat out no I don't want one?

Kelly hadn't thought about the full bladder and baby moving down...

My main bugbear with it was that they left it in for too long after the delivery - I was up walking pretty soon after the epi was removed yet they left the catheter in for another 12 hours, despite me asking for it out. This then resulted in me stepping on it by accident during the day and it getting a good yank which was not very pleasant for my urethra IFYKWIM? It took a few weeks for it to feel normal again. I just don't want to go stirring it up if I can help it.

Thanks so much for your input everyone, if anyone else has a story I would love to hear.

[Phteven]

A-ha! This is exactly what I'm looking for this time Dachlostar...
A few q's if you don't mind
Did you have your bub in a hospital or birthing centre?
Did you have a low dose epi so you could walk to the loo or a full one and pee in the bed with a container (you don't have to answer that if you don't want to LOL)
Did they give you the option with the catheter or did you say flat out no I don't want one?

I had Yasin in a hospital
I had a low dose so I could have walked to the loo but it was a really long labour and I was tired and I couldn't be bothered so I just peed in a container and DH and the nurses cleared the room so I could have some privacy to pee (I'm a timid tinkler and I can't 'perform' with an audience).
When they gave me the epi they told me to remember to pee or they would have to give me a catheter so one of DH's jobs was to remind me to pee. They checked the amount in the container to make sure that I was peeing enough. With the cathater just before I pushed I said I would rather not but the midwife explained that even though I was great pee'er she wanted to be sure that my bladder was totally empty so that it couldn't slow things down. Since it had been such a long labour and I was really eager to get it over with I consented but I could have refused if I wanted.

[Tobily]

^ Thanks for that, I have an info session at the hospital next week so I'm going to ask them about this low dose epidural....I have heard of it before but don't know of many people who've actually had it. So your info is really helpful

Fletch - don't know why they left it in so long but if I have to have another one and they try that I'll take the stupid thing out myself! LOL.

[*Ali*]

i had a low dose epi as well or as they called it the hospital a walking epi, I was able to pee right up untill time to push and then they did an in out. I did have to have one after the baby was born but that was more to do with the stiches than the epi.

[enigma]

I was like Ali ( maybe because it was the same hospital - same policy ) ... I had a one off during the labour ( in and out ) .. and then after I had one put in because I had a lot of stitches ... I was in hospital for 3 days , they took it out on the last day and wouldnt let me go home until i did 3 pees...
It actually didnt bother me, it was unpleasant having the tube sticking out of me , but apart from that i didnt feel it or anything

[hannanat]

This then resulted in me stepping on it by accident during the day and it getting a good yank which was not very pleasant for my urethra

Oooooohhhh, my stomach turned when I read that - that sounds very uncomfortable,lol...