When medical professionals are doing it, it's generally not a problem.
this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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My x got an epidural when giving birth to our son. They got done and left the room, saying "we'll be back in a few to check on you ".
It was only a few minutes before I looked at the IV machine driving the drip. It had two sides to it. One going to the bag hanging on the left and one to the right. I don't remember which side, but one wasn't lit up. Like only one side was doing anything.
Two nurses came in about 15 minutes later and I said "I don't know, this may sound stupid but shouldn't both sides of that be 'on' ?".
They looked back and forth from me to the IV and each other. One got a panic look on her face and the other looked really pissed off. "We'll be right back" the pissed off one said and left the room.
After two more minutes, the Dr and both nurses came back in. Dr says with a annoyed tone, "we have to do this again".
Had to roll her on her side, take out the first one, pick a new spot and jab her again.
All three stood there and watched a third nurse start the machine.
Lots of fun that day./s
But seeing my boy come into this world, made it all worthwhile. For me anyway, I wasn't in any kind of pain.
Its not administered by the local smackhead, a trained doctor does it...
Fentanyl isnt unsafe, it just requires precise dosaging. The drug dealer passing it off as heroine doesnt care about accurate dosing, but the doctor who committed years off their life learning about it does care.
Isn't it kinda crazy we give them water too? The stuff people drown in?
From the data I can find, it seems that epidurals are administered in roughly 1 in 4 hospital births in the UK.
In 23-24 there were 545,149 deliveries in the NHS in the UK, that would equate to roughly 130,000-140,000 epidurals administered per year in the UK. This only includes those procedures directly related to hospital births, not the many people who have recurring epidural administered steroids or other treatments.
Serious complications (blood clots, infections, meningitis) are seen in about 1 in 145,000+ cases.
So suffice to say, epidurals though not entirely risk free (like any medical intervention) they are incredibly safe.
If you're in another country then the specific numbers may vary but will likely be in the same ballpark.
Sources:
Is it crazy? The anesthesiologist spend years studying this stuff.
Well considering the mortality rate for mothers is fairly low in rich countries I'd hazard a guess that it's fairly safe and the benefits widely outweighs the risk.
I'd actually really like to see more data on the benefits beyond just the pain relief/etc, wondering if there is a noticeable affect on birthing complications when going without an epidural. I feel like there could be a world where having an epidural reduces the possibility of complications, but obviously we can't trust just our feelings.
Isn’t it kinda crazy
Compared to a lot of other medical procedures ... not really.
no
yes
(Anecdotally and this was in the 90's) My mom was given a spinal epidural when she was giving birth to my brother which was only supposed to last through child birth, however she wasn't able to walk right for days after because of the lack of sensation in her legs, and for the rest of her life she would occasionally lose sensation in her lower half for a few seconds and have to brace herself on anything nearby to stop herself from falling.
Really not sure what the downvotes are about, I never said epidurals were unsafe, just something that happened to my mom when she got shit medical care a long time ago...
According to the source I sited above it seems permanent loss of sensation or motor function could potentially affect up to 15,000 a year so not out of the realms of possibility.