There is no reason to beat yourself up about it now, and many moms feel the way you do. Even I wish that I had known more with my first two children. The problem is that the medical society as a whole does not want to you know, so that they can do what ever they want when you are in their care. They also certainly don’t want you to think that you could birth without them!

To answer your question, there is not a whole lot out there that will tell you that there are long-term effects on the baby. Some that I have dug up are problems nursing, an excessively fussy baby several months after birth (which would affect bonding properly due to mother feeling inadequate), and delayed responsiveness by the baby. If these things are seen at birth, then there is reason to believe that the drugs got into the baby’s system and could have caused damage to it’s rapidly developing brain. The amount used to numb you would actually be a huge amount for a baby.

I had a Developmental Psychology professor who warned about the side effects. She studied the effects of cocaine on infants and found developmental delays, learning disabilities and bonding problems. She explained that the drugs used during labor would probably cause similar results. I have also read several books in which OBs speculate that it could cause such things as learning disabilities, hyperactivity, and attention problems. That would make sense given all of the children being diagnosed with things like ADHD and Autism or Spectrum Disorders these days.

Again, don’t beat yourself up about it. The best thing we can do, now that we know, is help others.