CT,
not true tat u cant BF ur bb if u had epi. i had epi for abt 8hrs and my bb popped at 553pm, after he was cleaned up, i was stitched up, he was 'dumped' on me by e midwife abt 630pm. e midwife told me 2 breastfeed him. wah piang! i was starving (cos only ate 1 small bowl of fish porridge at 8am n had nothing else except water) n i had 2 feed my son. i latched him on 1 breast n a grouchy me stopped him for suckling after a few mins. i even told my husband 'angrily' 2 bring him away. i know it was kinda mean n i did feel bad for a while after tat but hey, i was in pain (fr e stitching up of my episotomy wound), i starving so badly until husband could hear my stomach growling in e quiet delivery suite (my 1-bedded room took a while 2 b ready cos no 1-bedded room availble, they converted a 2-bedded room into a 1-bedded room for me) and i was also dead tired.
there's a mummy who gave birth 2wks ago...didnt take epi for tis delivery (she had epi for her 1st delivery), was in pain so bad tat she can feel the episotomy!
for me, i didnt feel e episotomy but i could feel my gynae stitching me up (yup! poking tat area *ouch* wif e needle, pulling e thread thru). i squirmed in pain, jumped a lil n even my gynae was surprised i felt it cos i was still on epi. my gynae then had 2 give me a shot of local anaesthesia 2 block e pain.
my cousin gave birth in end feb, didnt use epi for 1st 2 pregnancies (she also said epi no gd, lotsa side effects, etc), had 2 resort 2 epi in e end cos she was in so much pain & tensed up until her cervix cant dilate beyond 3cm after being in labour for a while. after she was administered epi, she popped within 1hr.
my advice 2 all 1st time mummies, let ur gynae or ur body tell u if u need epi or other forms of pain-relief (there are 2-3 other types). different pp got different levels of pain threshold. for me, my pain threshold is NIL so definitely need epi for sure.