To Epi, or not to Epi, that is the Question?

*Disclaimer: This reflects my personal (not professional) opinion about peripartum pain control and is not meant to be a means of birth control, nor is it to generalize that all men are wimps like me*

Best friend and his wife expecting. Baby's due date in mid-March. So we were talking about labour, and delivery.

"Go for the epidural!" I say

But they had heard stories about epidural babies needing forceps and vacuum assistance and weren't sure.

Well, I'm not an obstetrician. The last time I delivered a baby was 4 years ago. But I've seen enough pain from labour that I swore years ago that I would never put my wife through that.

Case in mind. Young late-20 plus primigravid. Pain pain pain. Huff huff huff. Cuss cuss cuss. And then the anesthesiologist comes in. Starts the epidural. Several minutes later I asked her how she felt. Her answer?

"I'm fine, doctor. How are you doing?". Smiling. La-dee-da.

Night and day.

Maybe I'm just a wimp when it comes to pain. Women, time immemorial, have delivered with no more anesthesia than punching their husbands' faces while uttering, "Why on EARTH did I let you do this to ME???" But I just can't forget the look of pain those women had. Sweat. Tears. Screams. Even to the extent of being fecally incontinent (okay, okay, I admit, this may have been from sphincter incontinence from the pressure).

Shudder.

Funny thing was, my buddy's comment was, "Oh, CK (another doctor friend in our gang) said the same thing; that she should get an epidural. Is it that bad?"

Buddy, you have no idea. Get some flowers ready, man, for you're gonna owe your wife a big one.