epidural

Will the epidural or any medications the doctor gives during labor and delivery harm my baby? Is this a stupid question? :)

[girliegrl1723]

no. they would not give you anything in the hospital that could potentially harm your baby. i think they typically give pitocin to help contractions get stronger and to help you dialate if you need it and they can also give you a local pain drug, such a demarol and/or an epidural if you so choose. if they were to give you anything else, it would probably be under specific circumstances and the pitocin, pain med. and epidural are all perfectly safe. some people don't feel comfertable receiving pain med. b/c it will go through the placenta like anything else and the baby will be exposed to it, but they wouldn't offer it if it was potentially harmful and he/she will be out of you within hours (hopefully) of receiving the drug, so i don't think its a big deal. epiduralsare done thousands of times a day all over the world and are usually no big deal either. good luck.

[Crritter]

No, does not go to baby so you are fine.  The IV drugs though will make you feel loopy and can cross over to baby and make them drowsy, they do not offer them after a certain point for this reason.  Thats' what they told us in childbirth class.

[Hulahut]

I had my son on 7/5, and I had the stadol (sp? - much like Demerol), and it really made me loopy, and it didn't take away the pain of the contractions - just dulled them a little.  And it really made me very dizzy.  I had to sit up and have DH rub my back all the while, because I had back labor (no pain in my stomach - weird), but the sitting up part made me even more dizzy.  Anyway, the Stadol only lasted about an hour or so, then the really bad contraction pain set in again before I could have the epidural.  I think if I had to do it again, I'd do the Stadol anyway, believe it or not, because any help with the pain is better than no help in my opinion.  I also had to have Pitocin, because my water broke, and I was dilated only 1cm, and I wasn't contracting on my own - that helps to make the contractions more intense and more painful.  My baby was fine during the Stadol and epidural - his heartbeat was fine, and he wasn't at all in distress.  I loved the epidural - it really sped up my dilation, too, because I was so relaxed.  I went from 3cm to 10 cm in under two hours.  Then, it was time to push.  The only real drawback of the epidural for me was the fact that I couldn't tell if I was pushing enough to move the baby down.  The doc had to tell me all the while if I was doing it right :)  I smile now, but it was definitely hard - you feel no real pain, but the pressure down there is immense once you have to start pushing.  You may know all this already, but if not, I find it useful to have this type of info.