What is Getting an Epidural Like with Nurse Stephanie — Episode 106

What is it LIKE to get an epidural. What will you feel and what will they ask you to do as it is placed. Then, how will it feel as you labor with an epidural? Today we have an experienced nurse on who has also had 2 epidurals of her own.

Today’s guest is my friend Stephanie who I’ve worked with for years. She’s been an L&D RN for almost 18 years and has two children of her own. She currently works in Florida.

Big thanks to our sponsor The Online Prenatal Class for Couples — we have a whole chapter on pain management. If you’re looking for more information on that side of things, be sure to get started in there!

In this episode

Discussing the epidural process

How having an epidural was different than we thought it would be.

How much you feel as the baby is coming out

Some epidural myths

Other things that might interest you

• Best time to get an epidural in labor
• My Encyclopedia on Epidurals
• Pain Management Options in Labor
• Who places an epidural?

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out my other pregnancy podcasts:

Transcript

[00:00:00.120] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on Episode 106, we are talking about what it is like to get an epidural. I always wondered this before I had my own epidural. So let’s untangle it.

[00:00:21.840] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary Erickson, the curly head behind the Pulling Curls Podcast, where we untangle pregnancy, parenting, home and even travel. We know there’s no right answer for every family, but hopefully we can spark some ideas that will work for yours. Life’s tangled just like my hair.

[00:00:44.960] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, before we get started, could you leave a review? It really helps when you guys review and tell me which episode you really like so that I can make more of those. So if you’re interested in more information on pain management, let me know with a review.

[00:00:56.360] – Hilary Erickson

OK, guys, today’s guest is my friend Stephanie. We worked together here in Phoenix and now she’s actually in Florida. So, we’ll get kind of a viewpoint across the nation of different kinds of birth. But she is the mom of two and has been a labor nurse, she says, for almost 18 years. So tons of experience on today’s podcast.

[00:01:15.990] – Hilary Erickson

Do you feel prepared for your delivery? In just three short hours, you can be prepared for the competent collaborative delivery you want. You’ll know what to expect and how to talk with your health care team. And there are no boring lessons in this class. I’ll use humor stories from my 20 years in the delivery room to engage both of you. I love how Alissa told me that she found herself laughing at things that used to sound scary. Most of all, you guys are going to be on the same page from Bump to Bassinette. Join the online prenatal class for couples today. You can save 15 percent with coupon code UNTANGLED. You can find a link in the show notes.

[00:01:51.260] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, Stephanie, welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:01:54.340] – Stephanie

Hey!

[00:01:55.510] – Hilary Erickson

So excited to have a friend on here to talk about epidurals.

[00:01:58.990] – Stephanie

Yes, I’m excited. I can’t believe I’m so excited that you’re doing this. Congratulations on your new fun things.

[00:02:04.300] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. So Stephanie and I work together and we worked together before you even ever had the baby. Yes, this is true.

[00:02:10.540] – Stephanie

So I know like both sides of these fun, exciting adventures now. Yeah. Whereas before you only knew one side. The other side. Yeah. The dark side.

[00:02:21.790] – Hilary Erickson

I don’t know. I think I prefer not to. Although when I was pregnant and I’d watch people get an epidural, I’d be like, oh I am so jealous.

[00:02:29.830] – Stephanie

Oh yes. Now, now, now that I know. Yeah. One hundred percent. I think I’m a little bit more liberal than I was before.

[00:02:38.140] – Hilary Erickson

And I wish I had a catheter at night.

[00:02:41.400] – Stephanie

Oh yeah. Yeah. For sure that my second pregnancy I remember walking around thinking about how I can not wait for that one thing.

[00:02:49.820] – Hilary Erickson

I just don’t want to pee all the time. Can someone pee for me?

[00:02:52.600] – Stephanie

Right. And it was always so disheartening when you’re like, oh my gosh, I got to go, I’ve got to go. You’re in the bathroom and you’re like, whoa, wait. What. That’s it. Like, no, there is more in there are there has to be more in there.

[00:03:01.750] – Hilary Erickson

And then there was. OK, so let’s talk a little bit about the epidural process. We are both experts in how an epidural. Well, we don’t we don’t put them in whatever happens behind their back because all magic to us. But as far as a patient. Yeah. So it starts by the patient asking for the epidural, right?

[00:03:18.870] – Stephanie

Absolutely. You have to say you want it before we could just give it to you.

[00:03:22.930] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. And if it’s something you’re planning on, I always would recommend letting your nurse know as soon as possible just so we can kind of coordinate things and we can keep an eye out for, like, what’s going on.

[00:03:33.610] – Stephanie

I always tell people, don’t wait till you’re crying to get your epidural, because if you wait till you’re crying at about another thirty to forty five minutes to that crying, and by then you’ll be just like in control, not in control anymore. So always ask before you get to that point where you think you’re not going to be able to be in control of yourself.

[00:03:50.260] – Hilary Erickson

Yes. Because it does require some control. Yeah. Because they’re back there with the needle, you know, want to be moving and thrashing and crying.

[00:03:57.310] – Stephanie

When you’re trying to get an epidural, they want you to be in a certain position. And I think that’s always helpful when, you know, you’re not in like writing, writing. So I would tell people if you’re zero to 10, zero is no pain. Five, you want to cry. Ten, you feel like you’re going to die. Don’t wait till you’re five. Like I say, like when you hit four legs, start thinking about like whether or not are you going to be able to handle this.

[00:04:16.090] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. Because you are going to get to a nine at least like that on a very broad scale. I don’t know about ten being you’re on fire. You were literally on fire. Yeah.

[00:04:26.980] – Stephanie

You’re fire or a limb is like dragging on the ground behind you is like a ten for me. Like a nurse’s skill. Yeah, it’s probably a labor nurses. Paynesville is also very different. Do you think that a med search nurse. Oh yeah.

[00:04:40.390] – Stephanie

One hundred percent. A hundred percent. I, I literally had a patient the other day that was looking at her cell phone chewing gum, which I told her she already had to spit out and smiling at me and I had asked for their pain scale and she’s like, oh yeah, she’s doing her job and smiling. And I’m like, so let’s revisit this pain scale because I’m not thinking you’re surely like knowing what a ten is, because this is not a tangle free.

[00:05:05.020] – Stephanie

You haven’t stepped on a track, you haven’t stepped on a Lego in the middle of the night in the dark like this is like logically not ten for you. So let’s talk about this. This is not what it’s going to be like here at the FDA.

[00:05:17.110] – Hilary Erickson

In California where nobody spoke. I didn’t speak anybody’s language. We always use the faces. Right. Sometimes I feel like the faces is better because I’m like, look at your face. It’s smiling.

[00:05:26.650] – Hilary Erickson

That’s still like a one or two.

[00:05:28.840] – Stephanie

Yeah. Especially for younger patients. I use that to like and I love that we have it on the wall at work where I work now. It’s so easy. Could just be like so like on this scale right here. Where are you thinking your faces. Yeah, it’s always unnerving. I think that’s a good one. I also tell people not to be afraid and get it too early of the pain they might have because it does take effect.

[00:05:47.650] – Hilary Erickson

They’re like all things considered fairly quickly.

[00:05:50.290] – Stephanie

Yeah. I mean within ten to twenty minutes you’re pretty you’re pretty comfortable. I mean, you’re starting to feel your contractions get shorter and shorter and shorter and then they’re all of a sudden like the nurses asking you, oh, so you feel your contractions, you’re like, what? Contractions. And that’s always my favorite thing to say. Like, oh, that means none. That means your pain is now a zero.

[00:06:10.690] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. Epidaurus. OK, so they they do set you up. Most people set up for the epidural. I used to have some doctors who laid down. Where do you what do you do at your hospital.

[00:06:20.020] – Stephanie

Your right now depends on the doc. A lot of them are, a lot of them set up. We do still have some of the older guys that do laterals. So you’ll feel lay down on one side or the other depending on if you’re a right handed or left handed.

[00:06:30.430] – Stephanie

Both of them, though, you’re basically still, like I always say, like you’re kind of doing like a mad cat on Halloween. We’re like, your back is like arch. It’s kind of like but like curled in like a cannonball and, you know, like you’re trying to relax your shoulders and kind of like just floating breasts. Yeah. And it’s not a super comfortable position. And we were. Realize that when you’re pregnant, nobody wants to just curl up around that baby, especially laying down is, I think, harder, because then that they ask you to bring your knees all the way up and you’re trying to grab underneath your knee like you really are truly at a cannonball position.

[00:07:01.770] – Stephanie

That one is a lot more difficult for some people. Yeah, and a lot of it. And then the. Putting your head down. Yes. Put your head to your chest. I think that’s like the worst part of the whole thing because you’re contracting and then you’re like cutting off your air supply, trying to like, put your head down and trying to breathe through it. And they’re telling you not to move. And that’s probably the hardest part of the whole process other than that initial little bee sting that they give you, the numb up your back.

[00:07:25.500] – Stephanie

Other than that, it’s take. Yeah, it’s me.

[00:07:27.600] – Hilary Erickson

So they do give you like a numbing little bee sting like we set about, which is similar to like what you’d get if you got a cavity filled or stitches, that same kind of a thing. And then after that, I always felt like it was just they were jabbing me with their pen, still looking for my spine. Yeah, kind of like exactly like or like taking their thumbnail and just like poking at just a little bit like just uncomfortable pressure, but not so bad that you’re not able to tolerate it typically, because usually by then your contractions are worse than that.

[00:07:55.290] – Stephanie

So it’s usually easier to deal with. It just depends. Like I’ve had two different experiences. My son, I really wanted a particular anesthesiologist to do my epidural before he went off shift and I had started to feel pain, but I wasn’t really all in that much pain. But I was like a four four. And so he put it in and so I barely had any discomfort. So I felt like the whole process of the epidural, he did a great job, don’t get me wrong.

[00:08:21.780] – Stephanie

But like my first one, I definitely felt more. Whereas my daughter I got to seven centimeters accidentally is kind of like how I like to say it. And I didn’t care what they were shoving in my back. They could have shoved an entire like whatever is very large into my back and I would have been totally fine as long as it resulted in total comfort. Like I did not care. I didn’t feel him back there. I really can’t remember what the man’s face looked like.

[00:08:47.550] – Stephanie

I remembered nothing from it. I just remember all of a sudden that one was a little easier. That next one was a little easier. So I think I think it truly depends on how bad you’re in pain to know really the true difference of are you really are you really needing it or you’re really not? And are you really going to feel a lot of it or you really not?

[00:09:06.540] – Hilary Erickson

That’s really true. I tell everybody that’s similar to an IV and then after they get it done, they’re like, oh, it was less because usually there’s just not as much pain when we put in the IV.

[00:09:15.550] – Stephanie

Yeah, I think the anticipation is way worse than the actual process for sure.

[00:09:19.710] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. The other good news with the epidural, as you humanly can not watch it on like an I.V..

[00:09:24.600] – Stephanie

I like to watch it, but I think it’s because I’m a nurse and kind of weird. But you can’t watch them put the needle in your back unless you’re like The Exorcist, like as the patient. Yeah, no, no. I like to watch.

[00:09:36.570] – Stephanie

Yes, you’re right. Because you can’t you can’t look, you can’t turn around and look back and they won’t even let really your significant other look there. So yeah, that’s true. You can’t really see it is the IV. You can totally open your eyes and go what are you doing. Yeah. And usually they let one person stay in the room. Yeah. But that person has to be sitting down because no matter how big and strong you are, I have had a pro football player player hit the floor before.

[00:09:58.530] – Stephanie

So everybody sits no matter what. And I would recommend dad maybe have a quick snap before that because some get a little and you don’t want us paying attention to you for sure. No, because then we start taking like video and putting it up on YouTube for the mom for later. No kidding. We don’t do that. But we do threaten that for her just to make it a little bit funny. But yeah. So, yeah, we always we always ask.

[00:10:23.070] – Stephanie

That’s especially true for delivery too, because it’s always good. Just those major critical times where we really need you to be there for mom and not on the floor. Yeah. And I will say that as a nurse, I had a fainting day as a nursing student. Did you you saw one or you did? No. Oh, no. I was my first day in the E.R. I didn’t eat breakfast was a DNC. I had cramps. I was it was over.

[00:10:45.270] – Stephanie

Oh, no, I never did. I only had one bad incident with, like, suction of a toothache, but, oh, that’s a whole nother world that I never visit again. The nurses and the things we don’t like. OK, so you sit up curled around your baby. They put the two the they do use a needle, but then the needle comes out and they put a plastic tube that’s about the size of like an angel hair spaghetti.

[00:11:09.750] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. It’s like a flexible one. And then they tape it with the mother lode of tape to your back. Yep, yep, yep. And then it just diffuses kind of like with an I.V. pump, and that is probably different than your mom got, because I will say for my first one who’s twenty one, I just kept getting other shots so they would just come in and give me we call it a bolus, but just like a bunch of medication.

[00:11:29.920] – Hilary Erickson

So I would go from like super not to like not very numb. And that might be what your mom experienced if she talks about it. But yeah. Look, I’m everyone’s grandma now. Wow. See, I did not know this. My mom was not able to get an epidural with my sister and I was trying to come out in the car and then my sister was trying to be born on a bedpan. So, like, she didn’t have time.

[00:11:49.770] – Stephanie

Really even do a whole lot of hospital, we were both very quick babies, so that was really lucky for her in a way, but also that she ended up going natural. So I don’t know how lucky that is. But so my mom never really got any of all of the pain meds that are available now. That’s right. And a lot of our moms didn’t. They might have gotten my mom got a peduncle, which I have not even yet, and they still have some docs that will do those.

[00:12:15.090] – Stephanie

So really just depends on where you go and when your doctor are like. But I’ve heard that those are actually quite helpful with certain pain. I just don’t think new doctors are really trained at it, though, now, because not only that, but that the culture today is so effortful. Control of it are also so peduncle is where they just wear like your your vagina and your cervix, right? Yeah. Your vagina and cervix are. So basically it takes away that for pain, which would be great in a way, like if they got further along.

[00:12:44.400] – Stephanie

But I don’t know, like I said, a pro epidural. I mean, I’ll help you go natural all the long, but I just sit there and look at you like, wow, you poor thing, you don’t even know the other side. OK, so the other side, what was different about having an epidural than you thought it would be? Anything you can still feel pressure, which I mean, I guess as a labor nurse now for almost 18 years, I’ve watched people do it for so long.

[00:13:08.700] – Stephanie

I guess I didn’t really realize how much you still feel like because, you know, you always have those patients that are like, oh, I don’t want to get hit because I want to experience everything. What, you still experience it? You still feel like the tightening in your belly, the pressure of the contraction in your belly. It’s not painful. You just kind of are aware that it’s there. And then when the baby comes down, like, I can feel that my son was there.

[00:13:29.910] – Stephanie

And I remember telling Cheryl we work with her, telling her, like, I think it’s time. She’s like, great. She put me over and like, left the room for another hour or so. I was just like, OK, you’re going to feel more and more pressure. So it was interesting because I do have I had a lot of patience before saying I really want to elicit experiences. And then now that I’ve had an epidural with too, I can kind of tell you like, yeah, you still do experience.

[00:13:56.130] – Stephanie

Have you been with another girl? I mean, I guess you do have some of the girls that are a little heavier than others really just depends on the dock. But you still feel it. And I just didn’t realize that as a nurse before and as a patient, you can say this seems really dense. I’d like to be able to move a little bit because because it’s on that IV, we could turn it down or we can turn it up depending on how much you’re feeling.

[00:14:15.450] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Yeah. Or we can turn it off. But that’s my last resort. I like to have it. Let’s just put it a have no. Yeah. Because I always feel like once you turn it off like there’s no getting back to that full relief that you had before, like none. There’s just no way because that initial they give you like right after you get like it’s placed where it needs to be for the anesthesiologist, they give you like a dose of medicine.

[00:14:39.150] – Stephanie

And that dose of medicine is like initially like that first like, hey, here, take all this medicine make you feel better. It’ll start to take away that contraction pain faster. I don’t think they, like, give you that big of a dose. Again, I don’t know, like, I guess I just I’m not a Sereni, so I really have no idea. But yeah, I feel like you get comfortable later. I don’t know, I don’t know why it would work differently.

[00:14:58.740] – Hilary Erickson

I guess that would I guess if they, if it gave the initial bolus. So what they do is they initially give you quite a lot of medication and you might feel very numb. That’s a great time for a nap. And then it kind of wears off just a little bit. And so don’t be worried that you’re like it’s going away. No, it was better to wear off just a skosh. Yeah, because you get to that point where, like right after you’re like, wow, I can’t really even feel my wiggle my toes or sometimes you can’t really feel the way I feel your legs are.

[00:15:21.600] – Stephanie

You can’t even bend your knees. But then all of a sudden later on you’re like, whoa, I’m able to bend my knees. What’s going on? I think it’s wearing off. It’s not it’s just it’s kind of evening off to what you’re getting on the pump that’s continuously giving you medication versus that big dose they give you in the beginning. So it’s still working. It’s just getting you closer to where you kind of want to be because you still want to able to move and you still want to be able to feel things for later when you have to push and bend your knees and do all of that for however long you have to do it.

[00:15:46.440] – Hilary Erickson

Hopefully, like. Yeah, bending your knees. I mean, that’s a perfect epidurals. If you can still tip back a little bit of weight and feel some autonomy. Yes. Versus just a lump of log. OK, so the other thing I thought, too, is as a patient, they’re always like, you feel you’ll feel pressure. It’s not pain, but the pressure can be painful. So I think that’s something to be aware that you might register it as pain, even though it’s pressure.

[00:16:11.010] – Hilary Erickson

So pressure being that the baby is pushing down on your tissues, it’s not going to take all that away. Yeah, but that can still be uncomfortable, especially when you get to, like, the pushing time, like you’ll feel the pressure and stuff and it’ll be a little bit uncomfortable with that when you start pushing, typically because you’re doing something about that pressure, it actually makes you feel better. But then when you when you’re worried that it’s kind of like when you’re crowning, when the baby’s right there, I was called the ring of fire.

[00:16:36.990] – Stephanie

Sometimes, no matter how much of a girl you got on board, that’s going to hurt. And it’s for such a short period of time. And it’s actually really good for you because it helps your perineum stretch out. So you kind of reduce that risk appearing and the need for a. And things like that, and it helps squeeze the baby a little bit more, which kind of helps get all that fluid out. So there’s so many good things about it, but it’s uncomfortable and it’s kind of excruciating.

[00:16:58.750] – Stephanie

And that’s why I called the Ring of Fire, because it literally feels like you’re kutas on fire, for lack of a better word. Yeah, and it doesn’t last long now because you’re being crowning. So it’s right there. So you’re pushing with contractions and the baby comes out within the minute or two and then you’re done. You have a and in general, I would say it is not near as bad if you have an epidural that if you don’t have an epidural, that’s usually when you get that scream.

[00:17:21.340] – Stephanie

Yeah. And then you actually with an epidural, you’re almost better off because you have more control over that pushing. Whereas without an epidural, you just don’t you don’t have that control. You just want to push whether you have a contraction or not because you feel that pressure down there. So, yeah, OK, let’s bust some epidural ness. Do you have any myth’s you want me to start? You’re not going to be paralyzed. Yeah. A lot of people think you’re actually they’re not actually by your spinal cord, but they could paralyze you.

[00:17:49.990] – Hilary Erickson

They’re lower than that. They could cause some damage, of course. But yeah. Yeah, you can have some back pain, I think is like the biggest thing that comes away from it. But being paralyzed. No. Yeah, no. And I will say I get a lot who are like, well my mom, sisters and brothers, nephews, cousin who she had back pain forever after having a baby. And I’m like, well, having kids is a pain in your back because suddenly you’re doing all these weird putting a baby in the crib, putting the car seat in, all of them breastfeeding.

[00:18:19.450] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, there’s all these weird things and you’re back. There’s no body mechanics. You’ve given up. You’re too tired to care. Exactly. You’re not bend your knees to lift and you’re just getting it done like it’s just you’re getting it done. So, yeah, I always felt a small bruise like where they put the needle in, but that was about it. The rest was all me. I truly I think the worst part of post epidural was getting the tape taken off, like it’s truly like getting your back waxed.

[00:18:48.520] – Stephanie

So if you’re a hairy mom, you might want to do something about that before you go. I don’t know. But it is it takes a second to come off and that’s fine. But then, like, for some reason, I felt that tape rip off area for a while, like for like I would say like a week. It was just sore, but it went away. So I don’t know. That might have just been maybe weird.

[00:19:08.740] – Hilary Erickson

Maybe they got some revenge on you. Do they put extra of a sticky spray on just to make sure that take off a little skin, too. Right. So I, I don’t I truly have no idea that second one. Like I told you, I have no recollection of that thing going in. I just remember feeling really good afterward. And I did have a little bit of a hot spot with that one, which is when you still feel contraction, pain in one spot, no matter what they do for you, what they give you.

[00:19:33.800] – Stephanie

But for me, I was lucky. It was just for a very short period of time because I was essentially complete right after getting my epidural. And it’s probably why I had the hot spots, because I just went so quickly with her. Yeah, you could have been your mom delivering in the car or in a bedpan, right? Yeah. Yeah, I’d pick a bedpan over my car. I think so too. I think it’d be cleaner.

[00:19:53.440] – Stephanie

And then at least that way I knew I was like in a hospital where like we were using their linens and not like my car floor mat to like clean things up. Yeah, I don’t know. That’s what I should have on as a company that fixes your car after you have your baby in the car. I don’t know how you get I don’t know how you come back with that. I don’t know. Like all I know is my my husband tells me the story about how he had somebody’s grandmother accidentally in his old car and he ended up having to sell the car because he could not get the smell out no matter what he did.

[00:20:22.090] – Stephanie

So, like, I can’t imagine the smell of baby juices getting that out of the car. Like, I just can’t know. I don’t want to I think I’d pretty much be like this was going to get traded in the goods. Yeah. Isn’t there a Seinfeld episode about the car? And like, there was a smell in a car and you just finally sold it? I do remember that. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that was a while ago.

[00:20:43.540] – Stephanie

But yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh gosh. I can’t even imagine. But yeah. All right. My other myth, I think I might have said this before, is that it’s only a take away. Eighty percent of the pain, like that’s what they aim for. I think a lot of people think it’s going to be one hundred percent pain free and they had zero coping skills. And when there is some pain and pressure involved, they literally cannot handle it at all.

[00:21:03.700] – Stephanie

Yes. One hundred percent. Yeah. Like I said, you want to be able to feel enough to know when you’re having a contraction so that when you are complete you can be like having a contraction. Let’s push versus having the nurses do all of it for you because then you’re not going to be pushing effectively and you’ll end up pushing for four hours and things like that. So, yeah, 80 percent, probably a really good luck because you’re not to be one hundred percent.

[00:21:25.780] – Stephanie

You don’t want to be one hundred percent, you truly wouldn’t be able to move. No, that’s when you have a C-section. I mean we do that so you can have a C-section. Yeah. The other one of course is walking up the drills. Have you ever given a walking up a all. No, never have given it up. I’ve never even seen anybody actually do anything like that. Well, actually, I don’t know. Would it be considered a walking epidural if you got one for like a bulging or herniated disc that.

[00:21:48.710] – Hilary Erickson

Sort of walking a patrol, I wonder? Well, it’s just a different kind of that’s not a labor of a girl that’s just like like no, it’s not like I got an epidural for my tailbone. That is a whole other episode. But I mean, yeah, you walk after that. But I think it’s just a super light epidural, like if you want a super light up at all. First off, I don’t know that I would get one.

[00:22:06.050] – Hilary Erickson

And second of all, just knock yourself out. But yeah, if you’re really wanting something super light, do IV medicines like. Yeah. That way. I mean I guess there’s probably positives, negatives to all of that, but yeah. No, I have never done the locking up girl thing. I’ve never even seen it done. So yeah. I think you just have to decide if the risks weigh the benefits. And also I’ve heard that by walking they mean you might be able to toe touch to a commode so you can pee, which again I love me a catheter when I’m pregnant.

[00:22:35.390] – Stephanie

So like when you not getting in and out of the bed is so difficult towards the end, it’s just like, why just go into a catheter? It’s so easy to do anything, such a vacation from life. You should start selling them for normal people or just pregnant women in general. Catheter a vacation from like, hey, that a nurses man. I would totally strap on a leg bag in the middle of a 12 hour shift or whatever.

[00:23:01.220] – Stephanie

It’s just like I have no time for that. Sorry. Then you’d realize you hadn’t drunk anything. Your urine would be super dark. I don’t know that I’d want it. Yeah, but that way you think about it this way too. Like you could at least monitor it throughout the day and be like looking a little bit, a little darker there or just going to go ahead, drink this glass of water real quick, whereas like when you’re not drinking and then you do finally go pee at work, you’re like a dork.

[00:23:23.570] – Stephanie

It’s been about ten hours. I probably should drink something. Yeah. At least that way you’d have like a little bit more like the opportunity to assess your your hydration. All right. So that’s the epidural. That’s what you guys should expect. I have a whole post about how the upper drill goes in. You guys can check it out, but hopefully this gave you guys some more information about epidurals. Thanks for coming on, Stephanie. Thanks for having me.

[00:23:45.020] – Hilary Erickson

OK, guys, I hope you enjoyed that episode. I loved having Stephanie on. I think it’s so fun to get information from both sides so she could tell you kind of what it felt like as a patient. We could tell you what happens like as a nurse.

[00:23:55.940] – Hilary Erickson

So hopefully you found that helpful. Again, I have a whole episode on epidurals. I have some videos and stuff, too, that I’ll tuck in the show notes if you’re interested on page management. I have a whole chapter on your pain management options in the online prenatal class for couples. I hope you guys will join me inside. Remember, you can use coupon code untangles to say 15 percent. So join me because I want to give you all of the details on pain management in labor.

[00:24:17.270] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode. We know you have lots of options for your ears and we are glad that you chose us. We drop episodes weekly and until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.