Experiencing an epidural headache?

What You Need To Know About Epidural Headaches - Miracle Maker Mom

Or are you trying to decide whether you want to go naturally or with an epidural?

Well, I’ve done it naturally, done it with an epidural, and I’ve also had the epidural headache. I have 8 kids. Yes 8, and they’re all mine. I had 5 naturally, and 3 with epidurals.

So, the first question I always get is why some naturally and some medicated? Did you change your mind at some point?

Good question. I always wanted to go naturally, but my first labor was not progressing and after 17 hours, as much as I’d so wanted a natural birth… it just wasn’t happening and I couldn’t handle it anymore.

So, epidural it was. But with the second I made it naturally. Wohoo! As well as with the third and fourth.

But with my fifth… I had a really fast, hard, and seriously painful labor. There were no breaks in between contractions. The birth came on so fast.

I was traumatized.

Seriously traumatized.

In fact, I was so traumatized that I didn’t want to have another baby. I was sooooo scared of the birth….

I finally decided that something doesn’t add up here. I don’t want to have another baby because I’m scared of giving birth naturally? Hmm…

That’s it, I changed course.

I got pregnant. I saw a doctor throughout my pregnancy (instead of the midwife route I’d taken for the previous 5), and when the day came, I literally danced in the hospital asking for the epidural.

“Can I have it yet? Can I have it?”

YES! I was that LADY!

The doctors were having a good laugh! 😊They gave me my long-awaited epidural. Soon after I pushed out a delicious little baby girl.

I smiled the whole way. No screaming. No trauma.

“Well,” I thought to myself, “this epidural thing isn’t so bad after all.” So, when I was expecting my seventh, I decided to go for the epidural again.

Labor day. Hospital. Epidural.

But this time around something strange happened. I was curled up in a ball, like the usual position. They prepped my back for the anesthesia. I got the epidural and I felt this cold fluid running up my back and hit the back of my neck.

Weird. I was like, “Woah! This is new!”

I tried explaining the feeling to the doctors, but they were quick to tell me that it was nothing. So, labor went on. Soon after the delivery I got this HEADACHE!

Now I don’t mean give me a Tylenol type of headache. I mean smack your head against the wall type of headache. The only thing I could possibly compare it to is viral meningitis, which I had when I was 19.

Related: Natural Birth vs. an Epidural

I tried explaining it to the doctors and nurses. But they kept telling me that I hadn’t slept enough and that I just needed to get a good night’s sleep.

Can you imagine? They didn’t believe me!

The one really strange thing was when I lay down, the pain disappeared. But when I sat up, it reappeared. That doesn’t happen with meningitis.

Thankfully, the anesthesiologist paid me a visit the next day, (after I’d complained enough). He asked me to describe what I was feeling. I told it him how it went away when I lay down. He said, “Yep. That’s an epidural headache.”

Finally! Someone believed me! He said it came down to two options:

1 – WAIT IT OUT

2 – BLOOD PATCH

The doctor told me that if I were to pick the first option, the epidural headache would likely take a month or more to go away.

Epidural Headache - Blood Patch- Miracle Maker Mom

What?!?! A month? Nope. Not an option.

I mean I have 7 kids now, including a newborn. I need to take care of them and right now and I can’t even sit up! So, the second option it was.

The epidural blood patch is a process where they draw blood out of your arm and inject that blood back into your back in the exact spot where they did the epidural.

You see, based on my understanding, an epidural headache happens when they puncture a little more than they meant to while puncturing your back to get to your nerves. Some of the fluid from the brain stem gets let out, which creates a vacuum. That vacuum is causing the pain. So, when you do the blood patch, it fills up the space with your own blood, filling the vacuum and eliminating the pain.

I wasn’t thrilled at the idea, but didn’t see any other choice.

Only one problem – my platelets were low! They wouldn’t do the procedure with the platelet levels being so low, so we needed to wait a day to see if they would go up.

Well, as long as I didn’t need to take my head off the bed, I was fine. The baby spent an awful lot of time in the nursery. The next day they took my blood every 3 hours to see if they could do the blood patch yet.

Me with my grandmother, my father & my new baby, a week after my blood patch. When family or friends said ‘You look great!’ I said ‘Looks can be deceiving!’ - I felt horrible!

Finally, at about 4 pm they said my platelet levels were borderline, which was good enough for the doctor on call, so they did the blood patch. The procedure was anything but pleasant.

After injecting the blood back into my back, the doctor instructed me to lay down completely still for 40 minutes. Not to move at all. I didn’t move a muscle.

When the time was up, a young and upbeat anesthesiologist came bouncing into the room and asked me to get up. She took my arm and started to pull me up. “Let’s go, you’re all better. Sit up. Come on, it’s time to go home.”

But as I sat up I started to feel shooting pain going down my legs. Every slight move, another shooting nerve pain.

I got so scared. I called the doctor.

“What is this shooting nerve pain going down my legs?”

Again, what was the response? “Oh, it’s nothing. You’ll feel fine in a few minutes.”

Long story short – I stayed another night and went home the next day while I was very much still in pain because of the epidural. A week went by with no improvement.

“Is this going to be forever?” The thought was really scaring me.

Visiting my OB didn’t help at all. After about 8 days I thought to call my daughter’s friend’s father who was an anesthesiologist.

He was very nice to hear me out while I told my story and my symptoms and he had a great explanation for the shooting nerve pain. He explained that the doctors poked my back a lot of times, scarring the spot where they did the epidural. It caused an inflammation, which was pressing on my nerves every time I moved. He figured that as soon as the inflammation went down the shooting nerve pain should go away.

He was right. It took 2 long weeks. But the nerve pain went away, entirely and permanently.

It was a really crazy experience for me, but like every experience in life, it was a learning experience.

Then came baby number 8, and no, I didn’t take an epidural. I labored while singing, dancing, playing the drums, and I pushed that baby out screaming and all!

So, what are my recommendations?

If you are going through an epidural headache: I strongly suggest you take the blood patch. No one can function with a headache like that. Remember to lie still for that 40 minute period. And if you get shooting nerve pain afterwards, know that it’s not permanent. It will go away as soon as the inflammation goes down. Need a body code session? Schedule a 15-min consult here.

If you are planning your upcoming birth I highly suggest you:

Go naturally. Plan to go naturally. There’s nothing like the way mother nature intended it. It’s healthier for mom, better for the baby, less risks involved and the recovery is by far faster and easier. In fact, I highly recommend Mama Natural’s online Childbirth course. Related: Mama Natural Birth Course Review
Get a Doula – you’re much more likely to be able to make it through naturally with a doula by your side. She’s trained to help you, has a lot of tricks up her sleeve and will motivate you when your energy starts to dwindle.
Listen to Yourself – Go into labor with a plan. But. Listen to your body. Labor is real. If you’ve never done it before, you can’t imagine. You don’t want to come out so traumatized that you’ll never want to have another baby. After all the point of labor is not to have done it naturally. The point of labor is to come out holding your long awaited delicious little baby.

Good luck to you and congratulations! Have you experienced an epidural headache? Share your story with us in the comments section.