Side Effects of Epidural Injection in C-section

For the C-section, an epidural is considered to be safe, but all the medical precautions should be followed. Well, labor is hard and painful for every woman, but C-sections are conducted in rare cases if the labor does not seem to be possible. C-section makes the whole process comfortable, but before that women are injected anesthesia, and epidural is the most common type of it. The epidural injection gives relief from the pain, which is generally injected in the lower part of the back.

Proper anesthesiologists handle the whole procedure, which numbs the area where the epidural has been injected. It numbs from the bellybutton to the upper legs, it keeps the women awake throughout the delivery process, and this pain medication works after 15 minutes. The whole process looks so smooth, however, it could have some side effects which are not known for some. Here are the rare side effects enlisted which should be discussed with the doctor, of occurs.

Low Blood Pressure

The epidural block distresses the nerve fibers that help in muscle contraction in the blood vessels. This leads to a drop in blood pressure in about 14 percent of women who got epidural in labor. Although, this is not considered to be much harmful, however, if the blood pressure got too low, it could affect the baby’s blood flow. The blood pressure is already checked during the whole process, but still, the intravenous fluid is given to the women before the epidural.

Feelings of Sickness

Nausea or feelings of sickness is a rare side effect due to epidural, it could happen along with other medications for pain relief. However, it could not cause some severe health problems and easily be treated using anti-sickness medications.

Breathing Problems

Epidural may cause breathing issues in some rare cases, it disturbs the muscles of the chest that are responsible for breathing. The medicines used in epidural can cause breathing problems or other breathing related issues which could easily be treated.

Aching Back

Of course, when the needle is inserted to shoot up the epidural, the lower backaches. This aching may last in a few days, however, there is not confirmed researches that show it can cause a permanent achy back.

Infections

With a needle or some other thing, you might have an opening in the skin, which causes infection as bacteria gets inside. It has been rarely found in women who have an infection due to epidural. Well, when you are anesthetized your skin is cleaned properly, and the needle is completely sterilized before the injection inserts. This rarely happens, but it could be. Moreover, the infection could be transformed into any part of your body.

Fever

Fever occurs commonly in the women who got epidural, around 23 percent of women experience fever who got epidural. The actual reason is still unknown, but it has been studies that women who got epidural run a fever as compared to 7 percent of those who do not get it.