Photo: Courtesy of Jaimie Seaton
When I was a young girl I asked my mother if giving birth was horribly painful. She told me that it was, but it was such a beautiful experience that you forget the pain.
I remembered my mother?s words when I became pregnant with my first child at 35, and hoped they would turn out to be true. As my husband and I prepared for our daughter?s birth, we read books and attended birthing classes, and the more I learned, the more skeptical I became about the idea that beauty could defeat pain. Birth may be beautiful, but I was still going to be pushing a head and shoulders through my vagina.
I decided that if the pain became too much for me to bear, I would get an epidural. I had read numerous stories about women having natural births with no anaesthesia, but knew that I wasn?t that kind of woman. To be honest, this woman who was about to give birth to a baby was a bit of a baby herself. An epidural would be my ace in a hole, my saving grace; a way to a pain-free birth during which my husband and I would gaze into each other?s eyes and shed joyful tears (OK, maybe I was being overly hopeful).  .related-article-block{display:inline-block;width:300px;padding:0.5rem;margin-left:0.5rem;float:right;border:1px solid #ccc}@media (max-width: 525px){.related-article-block{float:none;display:block;width:280px;margin:0 auto 2rem}}

What you need to know before getting an epidural
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