Every birth story is different. From a cesarean delivery to a water birth, induced labor to a home birth, mamas are amazing in the many different ways they bring babies into the world. One common way is by getting an epidural.
Out of women who had a singleton vaginal delivery, 61% used an epidural, according to a 2011 report by National Vital Statistics. A 2022 study of New York State hospitals showed that having an epidural or combined spinal and epidural was associated with a decreased risk of severe maternal morbidity. Pretty awesome, right?
Still, the decision is a highly personal one that is up to a pregnant woman and her doctor. Many celebrity moms have opened up about their experience with epidurals — from why they liked them to why they don’t or can’t get one — and their stories are beautiful, complicated, funny, heartbreaking, and, above all, unashamed.
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Sometimes, moms don’t get a choice to have an epidural, like Mandy Moore or Serena Williams. Other times, moms plan on not having one, then change their minds while in labor, like Kate Hudson.
Still other moms have an epidural for one kid, and choose to have a drug-free home birth for the next, like Hilary Duff.
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She summed it up well after her daughter Mae, 16 months, was born, when Duff wrote, “This is hard work…every way a woman brings a baby in is. From getting pregnant, to c-sections, hospital or home births, the breast feeding journey (oy vey that one gets me every time) and raising these little beings responsibly to be stand up, confidant, kind citizens of the world. It’s completely consuming. A tedious, magical, miraculous adventure…So cheers almighty mothers. You make mountains move daily.” So true!
Read these celebrity moms’ stories about epidurals, below.
Chrissy Teigen
When Chrissy Teigen gave birth to her firstborn Luna, 6, she was expecting a C-section because the baby was breech. But then the baby flipped, and she ended up having the baby vaginally.
The Cravings author, who is also mom to Miles, 4, and a baby born in Jan. 2023 with husband John Legend, told Cosmopolitan the story in Dec. 2016. “I went for a regular checkup and my doctor’s office was up these stairs, so I was huffing and puffing,” she said. “They take your blood pressure every time you go, and mine was high, so my doctor was like, ‘You need to go to the hospital right now.’ I got induced. It was crazy. I [did the natural thing] for, like, an hour because I wanted to know what it was like. Then I was like, ‘OK! Got it, thanks!’”
After asking for an epidural, things got much better.
“Honestly, it was the life, lying in bed watching Bravo, not feeling a thing!” Teigen told the outlet. “But I find the most random things to be fun. John actually had a performance that night. He was like, ‘I don’t have to go,’ but I said, ‘Just do it. I’m gonna be sitting here eating popsicles for the next 24 hours. It’s fine.’”
She added that she texted Legend to bring her food, but all they had was lamb chops. “I was like, ‘Bring it to me!’” Teigen recalled. “My doctors are gonna hate me but I was eating lamb chops, popsicles, and watching Bravo. Then I woke up and they were like, it’s time.” We love that!
A few years later, Teigen experienced a heartbreaking pregnancy loss at 20 weeks with baby Jack. She opened up about the painful experience and her epidural in an essay for Medium. Teigen wrote, “At this point I had already come to terms with what would happen: I would have an epidural and be induced to deliver our 20 week old, a boy that would have never survived in my belly (please excuse these simple terms).”
She added, “I’m not sure I’ll ever forget the experience. I had always laughed about how much I loved epidurals…not so much this one.”
Teigen has not yet revealed whether or not she had an epidural with her rainbow baby, but chances are, it was an emotional experience either way.
Kristen Bell
Mom of two Kristen Bell enjoyed her epidural. In an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she said, “My perspective was — as someone who has never experimented with drugs — I really enjoyed it. It was kind of a wonderful experience for me. While they were doing it, I actually thought, like, ‘What else could we get done down there?’ … Just anything to keep the epidural flowing!”
Bell, who is mom to Delta, 8, and Lincoln, 9, with husband Dax Shepard, added, “… About six or seven hours later, I’m sitting in my hospital bed, and I say to Dax, ‘Well, I think the epidural has finally worn off.’ And he looks over, and I am scratching holes in my face like a meth addict.”
Victoria Beckham
Victoria Beckham is a boss, and for her, an epidural means not having to take a single day off work. In an interview with FT.com, per Mirror, the fashion designer was talking about “maintaining” success. When asked if she took time off after her youngest child Harper’s birth, who is now 11, Beckham said that she was back to work before “she had feeling back in her legs.”
“Let me tell you. I was still in hospital,” she said. “I couldn’t feel my legs because of the bloody epidural, and I’m being asked to approve lookbook images.” A mother’s job never ends!
Meghan Markle
In his Jan. 2023 memoir, Spare, Prince Harry shared some details about his wife Meghan Markle’s labor and delivery with their son Archie, 3.
He describes how he ate Nando’s chicken and got high on laughing gas while Meghan “bounced on a giant purple ball” and listened to “soulful hymns,” per Daily Mail. “Meg was so calm. I was calm too,” he wrote.
But when it was time for an epidural, things started to get real. “The anaesthetist hurried in. Off went the music, on went the lights. Whoa. Vibe change,” he wrote.
Despite fears that Archie was “tangled” in the umbilical cord, the birth went smoothly.
Mandy Moore
When Mandy Moore gave birth to her second baby with husband Taylor Goldsmith in Oct. 2022, it was be without an epidural — which was not her choice. The “In Real Life” singer told TODAYon July 29, 2022, that she has an autoimmune disorder known as immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).
“My platelets are too low for an epidural,” she told the outlet, revealing that she has an unmedicated birth with her 23-month-old son Gus for the same reason. “It was awful. But I can do it one more time. I can climb that mountain again,” Moore continued. “I wish medication was an option — just the idea of it being on the table is so nice. But we’ll just push forth like we did last time.”
Gal Gadot
Gal Gadot loved having epidurals! The Wonder Woman star, who is mom to Alma, 11, Maya, 5, and Daniella, 1, with husband Jaron Varsano, told InStyle in February that she enjoys childbirth because of her epidurals.
“I love giving birth. I would do it once a week if I could,” Gadot said. “It’s so magical. And I always take epidurals, to be fair, so it’s not so painful.”
Whatever works for you, girl!
Shay Mitchell
When the Pretty Little Liars star was pregnant with Atlas, 3, her boyfriend Matte Babel didn’t want her to get an epidural, going as far as to say women are “genetically engineered” to handle the pain of childbirth.
“Am I partial to no epidural? Yes. Why? Because I’m a hypochondriac. I’m afraid of drugs,” he said in an episode of Mitchell’s YouTube series, Almost Ready. “My mom didn’t use an epidural. I meet women all the time who didn’t choose to use an epidural.”
Mitchell countered, “Would you get a root canal without any drugs?”
She added, “You’re in excruciating pain and I’m holding the medicine like this and I’m like, ‘You can have it and it wouldn’t do any harm, but you don’t want it. Do you want to be a fighter? Fight through it.’ ”
“A root canal is not comparable because you’re not born to go through a root canal,” he responded. “As a woman, your body is genetically engineered to give birth.” Whoa, there!
Mitchell did get an epidural, which she revealed in her birth video, saying, “This is the most comfortable I’ve been in a long time.” Babel wore a shirt that said, “No ovaries, no opinion,” and it’s nice to see that he came around. The couple also share Rome, who has born in May 2022.
Shawn Johnson East
Getting an epidural wasn’t Shawn Johnson’s original plan for her daughter, Drew, 3, whom she shares with husband Andrew East, and she initially felt guilty about it.
“22 hours of labor to end in a c section,” she wrote on Instagram on Nov. 2019. “I went in with such a stubborn mindset of thinking the only way I could bring our baby into the world was naturally. No meds no intervention. At 14 hours when I chose to get an epidural, I felt guilty. At 22 hours when we were told I had to get a c section I felt like I had failed. But after holding our sweet girl in my arms and being told everything went well and she had made it to us safely I could have cared less.”
The couple also share son Jett, 1.
Gigi Hadid
Gigi Hadid questioned her decision to not get an epidural halfway through her labor with Khai, 2, whom she shares with ex Zayn Malik.
“I knew it was going to be the craziest pain in my life, but you have to surrender to it and be like, ‘This is what it is,’” she told Voguefor the March 2021 cover story. “There definitely was a point where I was like, I wonder what it would be like with an epidural, how it would be different.”
But she couldn’t change her mind, as she was 90 minutes from the hospital. Her midwife encouraged her to keep pushing because it would be too late for an epidural by the time she got there anyway.
“I probably looked crazy, actually,” she said. “I was an animal woman.”
Hilaria Baldwin
In an interview in the August 2016 issue of Fit Pregnancy,per PEOPLE, Hilaria Baldwin talked about smiling after the epidural. “I’d originally wanted to have my kids without drugs, but I ended up having epidurals for both,” she said. “It gives you just enough relief, so you feel happy and present but not numb. With Rafa, I labored without one for 15 hours, and I was in extreme pain. Then I got the shot, and suddenly I was smiling. I love giving birth, probably because of the drugs.”
Baldwin is mom to Carmen, 9, Rafael, 7, Leonardo, 6, Romeo, 4, Eduardo, 2, Lucia, 2, and Ilaria Catalina, 4 months, with husband Alec Baldwin. Previously, she joked about not letting Alec in the delivery room until after the epidural.
Christina Applegate
Despite initially wanting an epidural when she was pregnant with Sadie Grace, now 11, Christina Applegate said she didn’t like the feeling of it, so she turned it off.
“I had my plan. Plans are a big joke, you know, [mine] was to have an epidural but I didn’t react to it well,” she told Ellen DeGeneres in Feb. 2011. “I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the feeling of numbness. I didn’t like it. It was really creepy to me. It was too much so we turned it off and we opted to go all the way… Feeling it all.”
She added, “It was profound. It was profound pain. And then that happens (pointing to photo of daughter). Just that moment, pulling her out and I dropped my gown which I don’t do. This part of my body (her chest) is very private to me.”
Serena Williams
Serena Williams went into labor with daughter Olympia, 5, whom she shares with Alex Ohanian, planning on an epidural, but her body had other plans.
“I was more than ready for the epidural, but after 20 minutes, the doctor walked in, looked at me, and said, ‘We’re giving you a C-section,’” she told ELLE in April 2022. “She made it clear that there wasn’t time for an epidural or more pushing. I loved her confidence; had she given me the choice between more pushing or surgery, I would have been ruined. I’m not good at making decisions.”
Williams continued, “In that moment, what I needed most was that calm, affirmative direction. Since it was my first child, I really wanted to have the baby vaginally, but I thought to myself, ‘I’ve had so many surgeries, what’s another one?’ Being an athlete is so often about controlling your body, wielding its power, but it’s also about knowing when to surrender. I was happy and relieved to let go; the energy in the room totally changed. We went from this intense, seemingly endless process to a clear plan for bringing this baby into the world.”
Megan Fox
When Megan Fox was pregnant with Noah, 10, whom she shares with ex-husband Brian Austin Green, she thought she would be “tough” during delivery, but ended up needing an epidural.
“I thought I was going to be tough and the nurses would be like, ‘She’s a warrior princess! She doesn’t need an epidural. She’s amazing! We’re such big fans,’” Fox said on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, per Us Weekly, in Dec. 2012. “As soon as I got out of the car, I was already crying for an epidural. I was asking the security guard for an epidural!”
Fox, who also shares Bodhi, 8, and Journey, 6, with Green, told Access Hollywood,per PEOPLE, “I was screaming for an epidural when [Brian] was driving me to the hospital because my water broke on its own and immediately — it was level orange pain alert.” Can relate!
Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff had an epidural and hospital birth with son Luca, 10, with ex-husband Mike Comrie, but opted for a home birth for her daughter Banks, 4, and Mae, 1, with husband Matthew Koma.
In an episode of theInformed Pregnancy podcast in October 2018, the Younger star said, “I just started thinking that I wanted a different experience.”
“I’m older now — I love motherhood more than anything,” she continued. “I never thought it could be this way. I never thought I could be so happy and so fulfilled. And I thought to myself that I want to get the full experience of what it is to bring a baby into the world and how incredible our bodies are. My body gave me this incredible little boy and now I get to have this little girl and I want to experience it to the fullest.”
She also said Koma was supportive of her, no matter what happens, saying, “‘If we go to the hospital and you get an epidural, so what? You labored at home and then you’re going to the hospital to have your baby. There’s no failure here. We’re gonna end up with a baby at the end of this.’”
Duff also had a home birth with Mae in March 2021.
Kate Hudson
FOMO kept Kate Hudson from having a natural birth. Her mom, Goldie Hawn, and others were in the room when she was laboring with her daughter Rani Rose, 4, with fiancé Danny Fujikawa, and they were having too much fun!
“I was induced, trying to do it naturally, and then everybody would be in the room and I’d have those crazy contractions where I’d be talking and then all of a sudden I’d go, ‘Ooh.’ I’d have to hunker down,” the actress, who is also mom to Ryder, 19, with ex Chris Robinson, and Bingham, 11, with ex Matt Bellamy, said on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Showin Jan. 2019.
“Because there were so many people in and out — and I was feeling left out of the social aspect of it — I looked at the nurse and I was like, ‘I think I want the epidural, because I’m too social for natural childbirth,’” she continued. “I ended up getting a walking epidural, and then during the actual pushing, it was [quick]. The doctor was amazing.”
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