Is it a natural birth if you take tylenol in labor? - Page 2

[WifeofAnt]

Its just Tylenol! The odds of it really doing anything significant are just about the same as the odds of a placebo helping. Totally natural IMO.

[mmaramba]

Yeah, "natural" is waaaaay too ambiguous a term to be defined strictly. What "NCB" advocates are for is really what might be called "normal birth," but then that would get folks up in arms about being called "abnormal," and it's a whole big (and pretty much the same) mess. Someone arguing that Tylenol makes a labor "unnatural" or "not natural" sounds like she is caught in the barrel mentality with the rest of the crabs. Either she is some kind of extreme purist or she is trying to justify all the more injurious interventions by equating Tylenol with them. It's not supposed to be a game show with winners and losers, either way.

The bottom line (IMNSHO) is that we should all be "for" drastically decreasing the use of unnecessary interventions and promoting labor coping and birthing techniques that lead to the best outcomes for baby and mother.

Even in my "perfect world," there would be C/S, the use of some drugs, etc.-- even in the case of "maternal choice" or exhaustion when they're not strictly "necessary." However, they would be relatively rare and/or last resorts-- at least performed at a frequency commensurate with their risks.

At some point this gets to be like 9th level veganism-- not eating anything that casts a shadow. The bottom line is not fanaticism, it's improving the health and well-being of women and babies.

Really, this whole focus on pain and who is a "real woman" and who is somehow not... No. That's a smokescreen designed to divide and conquer.

Okay, off my

[MyCalling]

Wow, I should have come here yesterday when you started this thread...while I was in labor! I always build up to transition-strength contractions before dilating past 2cm, then I'll jump to pushing within an hour.

But can imagine how disheartening it is to hear you're only a 2 while in that much pain?!? Some Tylenol would have been wonderful about that point. I'd never even thought of it. In fact, I'm so dense I never even thought of taking it for afterbirth pains until my husband offered it my last postpartum. What a dork!

[phathui5]

I would say you can count it. Tylenol is a far cry from IV medication or an epidural.

[Devaskyla]

I took some Advil for labour with ds2 & had a beer with ds3. Don't think they *did* much, bt definitely consider them natural births.

[Smokering]

I don't consider my vaginal birth "natural" for many reasons... it was a prostoglandin gel induction for pre-eclampsia, and I was given gas towards the end - even though, in my labour-land fuzzy-minded state, I didn't suck on the tube thingy properly because it made me "feel funny", so it turned out I was using it totally ineffectively and didn't get any actual pain relief from it.

However, it never occurred to me to not think it was natural because of the Panadol I took during early labour, or the hot wheatie bags I used throughout, or DH's massaging my legs and back during contractions. That's not to say Panadol (NZ equivalent of Tylenol) is natural - it's a drug, obviously a birth including it is less natural than one without): it just didn't even register on my radar.

Oh well. I think getting hung up on the "natural birth" terminology is divisive and depressing anyway. The "natural" course in my pregnancy would have been to go into a coma and die, so, yay. I did have an amusing incident several months ago, however, when a nurse asked me during a cervical smear if I'd had a natural birth. I started waffling on about the prostoglandin gel and how I didn't have an epidural and so on, before it finally crossed my mind she meant "C-section vs vaginal".

[philomom]

Yes, still natural. Tylenol is an everyday drug for some people. This is not even in the same category as "drugs to relieve the pain of birth" drugs.


I had some Tylenol after my natural births. I had some bad after pains each time.

[kittywitty]

I hate that this turns into a contest- OMG I didn't drink filtered water in labor, my birth wasn't natural! Or something. Not that *this* thread is like that, but I hate it when it turns into one. Yes, I consider taking tylenol to still = natural childbirth, personally. But really, who cares what we think, as it's your birth and what we think shouldn't matter. But then again, I consider my half doses of nubain early in labor with two of my births to still have been natural. And no, they didn't help a bit. They did make me nauseous, though.

[bri276]

Where I live, "natural" childbirth seems to be synonymous to "vaginal" childbirth, since the only way I've heard it used is "Did you have a natural birth or c-section?" And I always say, "VAGINAL"

[Juvysen]

Originally Posted by kittywitty

I hate that this turns into a contest- OMG I didn't drink filtered water in labor, my birth wasn't natural!

filters aren't natural!



Sorry, couldn't resist.

I vote it's still natural. I used hypnobabies... is that natural? I'd do it again in a heartbeat, either way.