Dr. Stacey Charnes on Epidurals

I had my 33-week appointment with Dr. Charnes last night and she said something to me that I felt I must pass along to Queens mamas who might be considering her as their OB:

I told Dr. Charnes that I wanted to try to go as far as possible without an epidural and she peered at me skeptically and said "I don't recommend that." I explained to her that, of course I would be leaving my options open as most deliveries do not go as planned, but with my history of low blood pressure and low heart rate, I am concerned about the drugs' effect on my body. (I rarely even take over the counter medication--that's how careful with drugs I am.) Her response: there are drugs that can raise your blood pressure back up, so that is not a good reason to go without the epidural.

Well, its not going to be Dr. Charnes' decision once I'm in labor and I will be pretty vocal about that so I'm not too worried. However, if you want a doctor who is going to be completely on-board with an all-natural birth process, you might want to skip Dr. Charnes. As I've mentioned before, she's a good, thorough doctor, but she is not going to make you feel all warm and fuzzy.