This actually happened to me quite a while ago, but I just thought of it now.
I was talking to an acquaintance of mine at a kid's function. Her first child was born around the same time as mine and although I didn't know all the details of her labor and birth, she had mentioned several times that she had a natural childbirth.
For this particular conversation we were talking about labor/childbirth in a group of people. The group consisted of mostly crunchy types--all of whom had done NCB, several waterbirths, homebirths, etc. In fact, among the group there was a Bradley instructor and a doula-in-training. Basically, every mom was pretty well-versed.
Anyway, it comes out over the course of the conversation that although this one mom did not have an epidural, she had something (narcotics, I assume?) in her IV. She said when the nurse asked her if she wanted something for the pain she said "heck yah".
You can imagine everyone's reaction because for the last 2 or 3 years we had all assumed that when she said she had a NCB she meant an completely unmedicated birth. Not just "no epidural". Other than the stunned looks, no one said anything.
In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't say anything because it's really not my business, but I am slightly concerned that this woman might be spreading misinformation to FTMs about what NCB actually is. I am not trying to one-up anyone, but to be completely honest, I would sooner take an epidural or spinal than take the IV narcotics that could get into the baby's system.
So, what do you consider a NCB? Have you ever come across people that have a looser definition than you do? Is there an "official" or commonly accepted definition?
FWIW, I had an unmedicated hospital birth. So, I guess that's where I draw my line--no drugs before the baby was born. I did have a shot for bleeding afterwards. If I had had an IV (say with antibiotics for GBS) I think I would still consider that a NCB. Same with AROM although I wouldn't choose to have that done, in general. I sort of dislike the term NCB because it's kinda vague so I usually just say I had an unmedicated birth.
I was talking to an acquaintance of mine at a kid's function. Her first child was born around the same time as mine and although I didn't know all the details of her labor and birth, she had mentioned several times that she had a natural childbirth.
For this particular conversation we were talking about labor/childbirth in a group of people. The group consisted of mostly crunchy types--all of whom had done NCB, several waterbirths, homebirths, etc. In fact, among the group there was a Bradley instructor and a doula-in-training. Basically, every mom was pretty well-versed.
Anyway, it comes out over the course of the conversation that although this one mom did not have an epidural, she had something (narcotics, I assume?) in her IV. She said when the nurse asked her if she wanted something for the pain she said "heck yah".
You can imagine everyone's reaction because for the last 2 or 3 years we had all assumed that when she said she had a NCB she meant an completely unmedicated birth. Not just "no epidural". Other than the stunned looks, no one said anything.
In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't say anything because it's really not my business, but I am slightly concerned that this woman might be spreading misinformation to FTMs about what NCB actually is. I am not trying to one-up anyone, but to be completely honest, I would sooner take an epidural or spinal than take the IV narcotics that could get into the baby's system.
So, what do you consider a NCB? Have you ever come across people that have a looser definition than you do? Is there an "official" or commonly accepted definition?
FWIW, I had an unmedicated hospital birth. So, I guess that's where I draw my line--no drugs before the baby was born. I did have a shot for bleeding afterwards. If I had had an IV (say with antibiotics for GBS) I think I would still consider that a NCB. Same with AROM although I wouldn't choose to have that done, in general. I sort of dislike the term NCB because it's kinda vague so I usually just say I had an unmedicated birth.
The fact alone that like 98% of births in America are in hospitals, over 32% are CS, of the remaining vaginal, something like 60% of those are induced or augmented with pit and I think it's at least 70% that get epidurals. HB is considered dangerous, crazy, and fringe, and "OB" is simply synonymous with "maternity care provider." (I think MWs attend only about 8% of births in the US.)
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