[Marquise]

it happened when i had about an hour of intense labour to go, and then an hour of pushing.
after i had been begging for someone to come and look at it, because I thought it was wearing off.
they told me I must be imagining it. It was pretty horrific.

never heard of it happening before.

[soontobegran]

It happens very rarely if the tubing isn't taped properly. I am sorry they didn't bother looking to check it when you complained of pain...that is poor form.

[MissM86]

Yep, happened to me. It worked for about two hours then the bung fell away from the tube connected to the medicine bag. I told the midwives that I could feel pain but I left it too late to tell anyone- being my first birth and first epidural I thought this was 'meant to happen' so I could push! In fact, the midwives noticed me squirming and writhing and asked what was wrong and how come I was moving my legs!

All in all, I just got on with the birth and looked at the bright side of the (unexpectedly painful) picture- I could push baby out with no assistance. Anaethetist apologised the next day, as did the midwives and I was not charged for it (private hospital). It didnt bother me too much and I looked at it as 'just one of those things'!

[Dinosaurus]

Oh my God that would be bad. Surely they thought the fact you were in ANY pain was worth checking?

I'm so sorry.

STBG - do you still work at the mercy? (No I don't want to make a complaint or ask if you remember me - a family member recently started working there that's all )

[muggins_00]

Yep happened to me. About 4 hours or so after getting it for DS1 it slipped out of position. It slowly wore off and I was telling the midwife but she kept telling to keep pushing the button thingy for extra doses. Eventually they worked out it was out and offered to put another in but I refused. DS1 was born about 4-6 hours later.

[~ Lucy's Mum ~]

It happened to me too. I was happy for it to wear off a little to feel the contractions but not that much!!! I pushed for a full 2 hours and when I got up to have a shower the midwife said, "Well that explains why you were struggling with pain a the end... your epidural fell out".

I'm sure the edge was taken off but boy it hurt and I knew something was wrong as nothing happened when they topped me up.

ETA: I should've asked the anesthetist for a refund!

This post has been edited by ~ Lucy's Mum ~: 13/02/2013, 07:56 PM

[busy_bee]

Mine came out too.....luckily wasn't at the pushing stage.

I asked them to check - several times to no avail.
Reminded them that I was one of the hospital's ICU doctors (and look after all the post op epidurals) and had done some anaesthetics myself and this wasn't normal.
So they checked - there appeared to be some leaking but they decided that it was just because I was sweaty!!! Never mind the fact the distance of the skin had changed.

I made DH ring the obstetrician and the anaesthetist himself and all was sorted quickly with a new epidural

[busy_bee]

edited - double post


This post has been edited by busy_bee: 13/02/2013, 08:01 PM

[KRT]

I'm very sorry to hear that happened to you.

Mine didn't fall out - it just didn't work properly! It was definitely in there, because I felt a small decrease in the amount of pain when I had two bolus doses, but I still felt all of the contractions through two hours of pushing, episiotomy, forceps, MROP and stitches. I shudder to think what it would have been like without the epidural. I guess I was just unlucky!

I spoke with a midwife friend after the birth and she said that epidurals not working happened more often than you'd think.

[soontobegran]

STBG - do you still work at the mercy? (No I don't want to make a complaint or ask if you remember me - a family member recently started working there that's all )

Sadly I have had to retire due to medical issues....I miss it very much