This was once a CHOICE in my facility. It involves placing morphine in an epidural that supposedly provides pain relief by bathing the nerve roots. I have head raving reviews about how good it is. I haven't ever seen a dopey mom from a duramorph. However, we stopped offering them after 3 mothers went into respiritory arrest (why did it take 3?), because the duramorph went too high. They needed respirators and ICU care until it wore off or was reversed. Maybe one of or MD's or pharmicist could jump in here, but my understanding is that opiate antidotes may not work if the drug is in the spinal column. Maybe you should talk to a sympathetic anestheologist at your hospital about giving a trial for TENS units (I cant remember, but I think the letters stand for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) It provides very mild electrical shocks that block pain impulses. My OB uses them routinely post op and I know from my C/S experience that it worked great. And its NON-INVASIVE. Patient controlled anagelsia machines are used now, but I'm not happy with the type our hospital uses. It provides a constant drip and allows the patient to bolus when they feel they needed it. To me that is not *patient controlled* With my last big surgery I asked them to stop the drip and just let me bolus as needed. The idiot machine couldn't do that (???). I was so zoned that I lost 2 days (I only remember snippets of 2 days in ICU). I can't imagine being that wiped out and trying to BR F!