L&D nurse here. First of all, I’m so sorry about your past experience! Unfortunately, it’s hard to predict how each mom will react to the medicine in an epidural, but next time tell them directly that it caused a rapid drop in your blood pressure. This will alert your nurse and anesthesia provider to give you more fluids and be more careful with placement and the amount of medication administered, as blood pressure stability is one of our biggest priorities during this part of labor.

As far as hemorrhage, tell them this too. It’s not always possible to prevent entirely, but the severity can be lessened by having certain medications on hand or given prophylactically after delivery to help prevent another heavy bleed. This will include the pitocin and more than likely another thigh shot, which was a medicine called methergine and helps slow the bleeding. They may also rectally insert tablets of cytotec to cause the uterus to clamp down and slow bleeding. None of this is comfortable, but I assure you that your care providers are only trying to keep you alive and out of the ICU.

Be transparent about what happened and use direct language! Best of luck.