Epidural side effects you should expect
Common, mostly manageable, and mostly not mentioned.
Expect low blood pressure, heavy legs, itching, shivering, difficulty emptying your bladder and a longer second stage. The side effect that matters most before a cesarean is fever, which occurred in 14.5% of women with an epidural against 1.0% without, and which led to a sepsis workup in 34.0% of their newborns.
Where this comes from:
17. Anim-Somuah M, Smyth RMD, Cyna AM, Cuthbert A. Epidural versus non-epidural or no analgesia for pain management in labour. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018;(5):CD000331.
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This page is educational. It supports the conversation with your own clinicians. It is not consent to any treatment, and it cannot assess you.