I did not require pain medication: 35%
I had some pain medication (systemic narcotic): 11%
I had an epidural but no c-section: 20%
I had a spinal: 2%
I had a combined spinal/epidural: 4%
I had a cesarean section: 20%
I adopted: 2%
I am pregnant: 7%

Graphically:

Pie chart:

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Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

[edited to remove inactive poll; see poll results here]

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Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

– an epidural can make the baby sleepy;
– women who get epidurals are more likely to end up with a cesarean section, and c-sections can make it more difficult for the nursing mother to pick up the baby and position the baby at the breast; and
– mothers who choose not to have pain relief may be more motivated to breastfeed.

The study doesn’t really report anything we didn’t already know. This simply tells me that women should consider planning for a birth with the least possible amount of medical intervention, and prepare for the possibility of a cesarean birth. It is definitely possible to breastfeed after a cesarean, particularly if a woman seeks adequate breastfeeding and childcare support after the birth.

I’ve gone both ways–with epidural and without. I didn’t find that having an epidural interfered with breastfeeding, but I was highly motivated to breastfeed. Having gone without an epidural, I wish I had done so for my first labor. Generally when the pain starts mounting, that’s when the good work of the birth starts happening! I certainly do not fault anyone for their choice, and I recognize that some women do not have a choice. All this means is that women should prepare for the possibilities to give them the best start at breastfeeding.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

“My husband can breastfeed just as well as I can …

When I had my little girl, I was determined to breastfeed. My husband and I went to the class and I had a best friend that had nursed 4 kids successfully. It was supposed to go easy. We didn’t know for 2 days that I had a complication from my epidural called a spinal headache. I was leaking spinal fluid and my brain was sagging down onto my skull. No one caught it until they were going to discharge me. I had told anyone who would listen that I had such a bad headache that I literally couldn’t move my head, much less nurse well or do anything. Unless I was laying down flat, I just wanted to cry. The nurses kept telling me that I was just sore from delivering. What did they know! I was the one that was miserable. Finally, the nurse that was to discharge me figured out my problem.

But back to the nursing. So when the lactation consultants would come and show us what to do, (they were WONDERFUL!) they would show us how to nurse while laying on my side. I would lay down and my husband would get my little girl to latch on, nurse, and then he would burp her. He had to do this for the first 6 days as I was supposed to be on bed rest so that my spinal injury would heal. He was so good at it that he had to keep “flipping” her lip even after I was able to nurse on my own. He was better at it because he spent more time with the lactation consultant working with the baby than I did due to my headache.

So to all of you dads out there, listen good! You too can breastfeed. My phenomenally wonderful husband is proof of that.”

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Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3