There are side effects and risks involved when using any medication or procedure. Sometimes hospital staff will tell women that there are no side effects to epidurals, which is really not giving women all of the information that they need to make an informed decision. The following are a few of the side effects that we see with epidurals:

• Throughout labor and pregnancy, we monitor the baby's heart rate and watch for it to rise and fall. We analyze the condition of the baby according to these numbers. During an epidural, the baby's heart rate tends to go "flat." That means that the variability, the increase and decrease, is diminished. This reflects that medication does indeed affect the baby during labor.

Epidurals may not work completely –sometimes there are patches that the medication doesn't reach, which is uncomfortable for the mother.

• Epidurals lower the mother's blood pressure. This is not a problem if the mother' blood pressure was running high, but if her blood pressure was low in the first place, she may start to feel poorly and require oxygen and medication to raise her blood pressure.

• Epidurals may slow labor. If that is the case, pitocin is administered. Using these medications increases the chance of cesarean birth.

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