why did you/do you want to go natural?

[scottishmommy]

how did you come to your decision? is it because your mom and friends were natural birthers? my mother had all her children naturally, and encouraged me to go natural when i was pregnant. my mother in law had all her babies naturally as well. she was a great resource. both of them were there for my labor, and they were so helpful. i think the reason that i really didn't want to use drugs though, was because of my cousin. she was induced at 42 weeks. her cervix was closed and her fluids were low. she wanted a natural birth but was open to pain relief. she requested an epidural after she vomited many times from the pitocin contractions. when she got the epidural her blood pressure dropped, and they lost her baby's heartbeat. she had severe hypotension from the epidural. i was terrified of something like that happening to me in labor. i knew that i wanted to do everything i could to have a healthy delivery. obviously thing go wrong for natural deliveries too!

[broodymama]

When I was pregnant with my first I didn't have many friends that had kids, and none of them had unmedicated births. All epidurals and/or sections. I had thought about an epidural, but once I realized that meant I would need an IV then I changed my mind. I have a very strong fear of needles, and just didn't think I'd want a bunch of people poking me, prodding me and doing things to me during labor. (I was right!) A week in the hospital on mag sulfate for preterm labor solidified that feeling. So I bought the Hypnobabies home study course and had an unmedicated hospital birth. My next two were homebirths and planning another homebirth this time around.

[sehbub]

I joined MDC when I was pg with my first bio child. I was open to the idea of natural birth, but not married to it. I knew my mother had birthed naturally, but hers was more circumstance than choice.

Eventually I got to the point that I decided to plan a homebirth, and so therefore, would have a natural birth. DD3 decided she'd rather be born at 30 weeks, so the homebirth was obviously out of the question, but I knew that I wasn't comfortable pumping my body full of narcotics when delivering a teeny tiny preemie baby. I went through 37 hours of active labor with her, and only had a milligram of Stadol at hour 34 (which I regret) to take the edge off.

After all of that, I knew that I could totally handle this natural birth thang, and any future babies would arrive the same way.

Honestly, I loved all of it. I can't imagine being numb and not getting to feel my babies come out. Yes, it's really weird to feel the nose, shoulders, elbows, fingers, knees, etc as they come out, but amazing and exhilarating at the same time. I totally felt like She-Ra when I was done.

[fruitfulmomma]

You can't have drugs at home and there was no way I was going to the hospital unless it was an emergency. And as far as homebirth, I heard about it from a lady in the church nursery when I was younger and then got on a group with a bunch of 'crunchy' ladies online before I got pregnant with my oldest.

[laughingfox]

I didn't know anything about the industry of hospital birth before I got pregnant with my little surprise.
Once I found out what an epidural was and how it was done (you seriously want to put a tube into my back, ridiculously close to my spinal fluid, and have me lay down on it??), I knew I didn't want one.
I also didn't want my baby taken away after the birth, didn't want people messing with my body unnecessarily, didn't want to be stuck in a bed attached to a ton of machines, etc.
It was a very instinctual decision.
I didn't really have anyone around who had natural experiences or offered support until later in pregnancy after I'd found a homebirthing doctor and moved across the state.

[Sileree]

A big reason for me is sometimes drugs make babies sleepy so breastfeeding is harder.

[wbg]

At first I had no expectation and just went with it. Had the epi.
With subsequent babies I did not, and what I found was that the pain was helpful. I know that sounds weird, but it kind of tells you what to do. So You arch a certain way, or move another way and it seems the baby makes its way out. My epi baby was a little stuck! Pushing was harder and longer and he was sleepier!
My natural births have been painful yes, but somehow easier and all resulted in more chilled babies! Very alert, great nursers etc.

[khaoskat]

I am the odd one on both sides of the family. My SIL went natural with both of her kids, but it was not by choice. She got to the hospital too late to get an epidural.

I want natural, just because it feels right to me. Also, I have never had pain relief on my right side when I have been given an epidural. So, if I am still going to be left feeling pain on one side, then I might as well, just learn to deal with the pain the entire time.

After my first birth, I have always been able to deal with the pain. As a matter of fact, my last pregnancy I went through my entire dilation and effacement w/o any pain. I didn't feel pain until I left the comfort of my home.

[Materfamilias]

I wanted to go natural because it's, well, natural. It's what my body is designed to do. And the more I read about it after becoming pregnant, the more I felt that it was the best way to go. Experience has confirmed my feeling about that

[Right of Passage]

I knew intuitivly that it was better for my and my baby's healthy to avoid intervention. That sounds awfully know-it-all like but even when I was little I knew that women should give birth the way nature intended. I would draw pictures of birth and babies nursing as young as I can remember (about 4)

As far as my influences the only birth experience I had prior to giving birth was being born and watching TLC Baby story. I was a c-section baby and we all know what the baby story births look like. I remember being 11/12 and getting upset and knowing that that mom was going to end up with a vaccum/forceps delivery and that mom was going to be a c-section, and that mom was going to have trouble breastfeeding if she tried.

In the end I ended up with an extremely managed birth and c-section delivery, followed by a natural and short VBAC, and am now planning a HBAC.

[cappuccinosmom]

I always thought it seemed the most reasonable way to go, but I didn't get passionate about it until after my first birth and a bad experience with Stadol and essentially finding myself completely powerless.

[poetesss]

I don't believe in that "feeling the experience" stuff that people talk about when discussing natural birth. I'd rather NOT feel the pain. That's why I did hypnobabies/hypnobirthing, but I have fast labors, and so can't get into hypnosis quickly and deeply enough.

These are my reasons why I fear an epidural more than unmedicated birth:
*don't want to be stuck on my back tied to monitors
*don't want my bp dropping
*don't want my labor slowing down and stalling, requiring pit
*don't want that pit leading to my baby's heartrate decelerating
*don't want those complications leading to a forceps or c/s delivery
*don't want to be numbed out so I have to be told when to push, and then tearing up because I pushed too hard
*don't want to be up in stirrups and legs splayed out in someone's face and having them catch my baby when I can do it myself
*don't want the post-epi complications like numbness, back pain, headaches, etc. (I have MS, I already have this stuff anyway! Don't need any more of it!)
*don't want the risk of infection from a messed up epidural


I have a hard time getting across to people that the reason I don't take an epi has nothing to do with me thinking I'm superwoman--I just find the possible consequences of an epidural more offensive than the pain of childbirth.

[*MamaJen*]

When I was a lot younger I thought it was stupid to feel the pain if you didn't have to -- like it would be a rebellion against the patriarchal idea of the curse of Eve or whatever.
As I got older I realized there were valid reasons for natural childbirth, but I wasn't really interested in having babies and didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. Then one day I was writing a story about a breastfeeding issue (I'm a reporter) and I stumbled onto MDC. I started reading homebirth stories and at first I thought it was totally fringe and freaky, but then as I read them they totally and profoundly resonated with me. It opened up a whole new universe and even though I wasn't considering having a baby any time soon, I immediately knew I would want a midwife. When I got pregnant a year or so later I went into full-blown research mode. That's when I really learned about the idea of evidence-based maternity care, the idea that the standard interventions actually often have worse outcomes than the natural models, the idea that it's important to a women to birth in a safe and comfortable environment with emotional support, and the idea that labor isn't necessarily unbearably painful. It was like an entire paradigm shift.
For me it was less about whether or not to get an epidural, and more about avoiding the medicalized hospital model of childbirth and the whole slew of interventions it entails.
I had a really wonderful gentle homebirth and I'm so glad I chose that route.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

My main reason was because I wanted to prove I was strong enough to do it. Followed by knowing it was the way babies where meant to be born and I wanted to stay as close to nature as possible. It really felt great to tell the people who said I couldnt do it that I did and have no regrets at all about doing it that way.

[~Boudicca~]

I wanted a natural birth with dd2 because my medicated, intervention packed hospital birth completely sucked. So I did a 180 for the next one and had a completely amazing, surprisingly easy natural birth.

Until that point the only people I knew that had natural births (nevermind a homebirth) were on MDC. Even after I had my 2nd kid I got crap from people that thought there was something wrong with me for making the choices I did.

[etsdtm99]

I wanted to go natural the first time mainly because i wanted to avoid a c-section at all costs.. but i ended up with pitocin, no progress then an epidural, and thank god a vaginal birth and no serious complications.. 2nd time around, even though i was much more prepared, the same thing ended up happening... but my blood pressure dropped with the epidural .. it was horrible, the clock was ticking as everyone scrambled to prepare for an emergency c-section but i came out of it somehow .. that epidural put my baby in serious danger and didn't even WORK. we're planning a homebirth next time.. i don't want to be anywhere near pitocin or an epidural ..

[gcgirl]

For me, a big part of it was women have been doing it for thousands of years, and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

[Peony]

My mom had natural births so I grew up hearing the stories and always thought that was just the way it was. One of my nursing instructors (I'm an RN) was a CNM, she always pushed low intervention birth on us. We did OB clinicals at hospitals were epidurals were not offered. When it came time for my children, I knew that natural birth was the only way to go.

[Kidzaplenty]

I was ignorant. I chose to go natural because I just did not ever think there was another way.

I never was allowed around birthing. The closest I came to seeing my brothers born was going to school one day and coming home to my mom holding a baby.

I guess I was just blessed to be so ignorant! And I am VERY glad!

[KaylaBeanie]

I've said since I was four (and found out what an epidural was!) that my births would be natural, because I have a profound fear of needles. At age 12, I even had a broken and dislocated bone set with no pain medicine...I was THAT scared!

I became more knowledgeable about it after two events. First, when I was 13, my aunt had her 9th baby, and chose to have an epidural despite having 7 of the other 8 naturally with no issues. She suffered some sort of event, thought to be either mini strokes or a spinal headache. Whatever it was, she is still sick 7 years later, and frequently suffers dizziness and crippling headaches. I haven't talked to her much about it, but my oldest cousin says my aunt knows it was from her epidural. I decided that a day or two of pain could never be worth years of health problems, even if those problems are one in a million.

When I was 17, my SIL had my first niece completely naturally with a CNM, which got me reading. I quickly decided I wanted to be a doula, then decided I'd like to be a CPM. Hearing about SIL's two beautiful natural births makes me look forward to experiencing it.

So, in summary, it's a few things; my unnatural fear of needles makes me want to die at the thought of putting it in my spine, my aunt's experience, but mostly my whole attitude about birth. I know it'll hurt(unless I'm one of those lucky orgasmic birth women), it might be long, it'll definitely be hard work, but I'm designed to do it. I actually can't wait to be pregnant and go through labor!