If this was your first child, how do you know it didn't work? The point of an epidural is to reduce the pain, not remove it entirely. I'm sure the medical staff told you this at some point.

I just love how people are giving you no sympathy (not an fml) or what did you expect? I was in labor 4 Days (no that isn’t a typo) & the epidural I finally got only worked on half my body till I went to surgery. Everyone is not the same! Just because you experience a wonderful labor with kittens & rainbows all around, doesn’t mean everyone else will. Be sympathetic/understanding. Life has a funny way of teaching you lessons otherwise. Shalom!

My friend got her epidural and it numbed everything accept the hole.

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congratulations on the baby

I just love how people are giving you no sympathy (not an fml) or what did you expect? I was in labor 4 Days (no that isn’t a typo) & the epidural I finally got only worked on half my body till I went to surgery. Everyone is not the same! Just because you experience a wonderful labor with kittens & rainbows all around, doesn’t mean everyone else will. Be sympathetic/understanding. Life has a funny way of teaching you lessons otherwise. Shalom!

I guess that’s going to dampen your enthusiasm for having more?

OP, I'm not even pregnant but am having sympathy pain for you! This is a double FML! 1- getting an epidural put in sucks, and 2- going through that and it not working. Guess I got lucky that mine did (although they hit a nerve in my spine going in). After a horrendous pregnancy, labor was a breeze, and delivery was like taking the biggest/best poop of my life!

If you can't deal with labor not going to plan and being unpleasant, you're in for a rough ride with parenthood.

Omg, this happened to me too! They put it in, it worked for an hour. They didn't tell me it would wear off and I needed to push a button on get more of the effect. Here's to natural birth lol!

Uh, people? Things like epidurals have pretty obvious sensations associated with them working. The sensation varies, but there's usually something that you feel prior to it working. Also, ladies, you are NOT supposed to feel pain when you have an epidural- your nerves are literally being blocked from sending or receiving SPECIFICALLY pain signals. Your spine can still send and receive the signals needed for movement, and receive the signals for sensations OTHER than pain, but if you still felt pain, chances are they didn't do it right or didn't use enough of the medication. Finally, even if OP hasn't had birth before, they would have had the contractions and labor pains from before hey were given the epidural, so they would in fact have a benchmark for if it worked. Even if they had it administered before they had contractions, they would still likely have some kind of experience with pain, and be able to judge that something wasn't right with the epidural because of the severity of the pain. Shit like "you're a first time mother! You don't have a benchmark!" is why women are so likely to die from labor in the USA- and more likely to die from complications related to surgery in general than men. You know what you are supposed to do if a patient says, "Wait, something doesn't feel right" or "I don't think the anesthesia is working!"? You ******* check, and if you can see a problem, you get a DAMN second opinion, especially if you work in a hospital where there are literally DOZENS of other medical personnel for you to get one from. It can literally be the difference between life and death, and if you can't treat a patient's concerns with the seriousness it deserves, you need to get your ass OUT of the medical field.

And you are still fine Like millions of other women before you who had children without epidurals