When is it too late to get epidural
During Labor, Is It Ever Too Late To Request An Epidural?
the only time that it is too late to
actually received some form of analgesia
is when the baby is actually coming out
my time obviously the more time I have
to practice my craft the better job I
can do but up until the baby is actually
coming out we can actually give you some
form of analgesia there is a limit
however to how quickly the medicine can
come on board it takes us about if we're
in a real hurry about three to five
minutes to get some form of analgesia
now obviously some is not all okay so
the more time that we have to administer
our medicine do things safely the better
chance that we can get good analgesia
for you as a spinoff from that a common
question is is when is when can I get my
epidural okay that is actually a very
important point typically speaking we
would like to wait for our women to get
epidurals when they're in adequate labor
okay and now adequate labor is chain is
defined as number one a change in your
cervix and that could be from a
fingertip to 1 1 to 3 3 to 5 1 to 9
whatever it takes as well as 3
contractions in 10 minutes okay now as
long as those two criteria are met then
there's absolutely no problem with
getting an epidural okay the concern is
is that if we put epidurals in too early
okay meaning that you haven't met one of
those two criteria the amount of fluids
that we give you to hydrate you as well
as the baby can actually increase the
duration of your pregnancy
meaning the duration of your labor so as
a consequence we want to make sure that
you're in an adequate labor and again it
used to be in the old days they used to
say you can't have your epidural until
you're four centimeters well that's not
really true as long as there's a change
in the cervix and at least three
contractions in ten minutes it's
perfectly acceptable if your epidural
typically they have shown that as long
as you are in adequate labor when your
epidural is placed there is absolutely
no correlation well let me back up
as long as you can wiggle your toes and
bend your knees okay the pelvic floor
the muscles stay nice and taut babies
are able to rotate when it engages and
as a consequence mom has the explosive
effort to be able to push adequately so
as long as mom has those physical
characteristics then there's absolutely
no problem with that
