so epidurals are extremely popular choices for pain management and labor but did you
know that not everybody who is interested in getting an epidural can actually have one
the case of some pre-existing medical conditions maybe a fast labor or a very small hospital with
not an available anesthesiologist at the time that you want one
can lead to the inability to get an epidural and if your mindset is on an epidural and you
find out you can't have one it can be shocking so we're going to talk about that in today's video
hey there my name is alice turner i am a birth doula lamas certified childbirth educator and
on my channel i make videos about birth it is my desire to help you have a positive birth
experience and when you find out an option is not available to you but you had your mindset on it
it can lead to a negative birth experience so i want to talk about how to pivot and i
really love to share a story with you that it happened in real life with a friend of a friend
who was interested in an epidural and found out that she might not have the ability to get one
so a few years back my friend put me in touch with a friend of hers i had met before
her name's helen and she was 30 weeks pregnant with her third baby and her first two babies she
used an epidural and she had a pretty smooth labor for both of them didn't really have any challenges
with the epidural and just planned on keeping that same plan for number three so helen was 30
weeks pregnant when she found out at a regular ob appointment that she had low platelets low
platelets is one reason that an epidural might not be an option and her ob said that at the time of
this check that her platelet level was borderline that in the next few weeks between her 30 week and
when the baby comes that the platelets might go up they might go down they might stay where they are
they can't really predict on what's gonna happen so helen said she left the ob appointment totally
rattled she felt like she had not thought of any other options on dealing with pain this
was her third baby and you know she had distant memories of some childbirth class that she took
with her first but really hadn't practiced any of the strategies or remembered any of them and
frankly was kind of doubting if those strategies really worked so our mutual friend put us in touch
and helen contacted me gave me the rundown of how she was feeling so the reality for helen was that
she was going to go into the hospital when she was in labor have her blood count and platelet count
checked and if she had a normal platelet count then things would proceed as normal and she would
labor and have a baby if however she had a low platelet count she saw a path that was just pain
and suffering on the way to having a baby and wondered was there actually a path of coping
and being in control and having a positive birth experience she was really doubting if that was
even possible and some of the things that she was wondering is you know was it too late to prepare
she was already at that time probably 31 maybe 32 weeks pregnant and she had not been preparing all
along for labor and birth and was wondering from me you know did she have any options or
was she just gonna roll the dice and see what happened in with her blood in the meantime so
helen and her husband sam were not happy about the chance of going the pain and suffering route
they really wanted to do as much as they could to prepare for what they might face
if they aren't able to have an epidural so i suggested two strategies for helen and sam
now these are not strategies that should just be limited to someone in this particular situation
these can be i think something that everybody should consider as they prepare for giving
birth so the first one is childbirth education and she was worried that we were too late for
childbirth education she was in those final eight weeks or so of pregnancy and it wasn't too late
i knew that she could get some valuable knowledge and skills and have some time to practice before
the big day and so the other thing is i suggested the supporting her class which
is a class that i created for partners for sam so that he would feel more confident in his role
link down below so childbirth education was my first go-to and then number two was hiring
a birth doula so a birth doula is kind of like a coach for labor and they go with you and help you
achieve your goals for birth so they actually jumped on board of both strategies they got
signed up for childbirth education and they found a birth doula that could work with their due
dates and they were ready to go until they had life step in those last few weeks of pregnancy
for helen and sam she reported were crazy so they had things going on with their other two children
and she just didn't have time to practice the comfort measures and the strategies that they had
been learning in childbirth class she said she had every intention to practice relaxation every day
and she didn't however she did have a doula who could remind her of these strategies so i
reassured her that she's on the right track it's okay that she doesn't have a time ton of time to
practice um that she still has the knowledge of them and she has learned them so not only
did she not have a ton of time to practice but she went into labor a couple weeks early so two
weeks before her due date she went into labor in the middle of the night happens all the time um
i don't know what goes on with the body that just nighttime is like the magic hour
so overnight she went into labor she said that she and sam were laboring at home really nicely
things started picking up so she called her doula who met her at the hospital got to the
hospital and just as you know she imagined she had a blood draw and she told her nurse that she
would consider an epidural she wanted to know her options and labor started picking up she
was coping nicely and sure enough she was holding her baby in her arms before the results from the
platelet count even came back from the labs pretty amazing and in her words she felt like a badass
it was so awesome to hear sam's voice afterwards and describe the labor and how they worked with
their doula as a team and how he watched helen be so powerful in labor and tackle this challenge
with confidence when before they were worried about the only option being pain and suffering
okay guys i'm leaning in a little closer for this one this is super important
i've seen it so many times labor doesn't always go as planned and having other strategies and other
tools in our toolbox are so important so if having a positive birth experience is important to you
then you're going to want to check out this next playlist that i put together right here and it
is going to give some more strategies and have some more tools in your toolbox see you next time
you