Remind me why I want a natural birth!! - Page 2

[thelucc]

To answer your post title in the most simple way I know how, after naturally delivering 3 and attempting at 4 in Feb... BECAUSE YOU CAN... YOUR BODY WAS MADE FOR IT! :)

Good luck!

[thelucc]

To answer your post title in the most simple way I know how, after naturally delivering 3 and attempting at 4 in Feb... BECAUSE YOU CAN... YOUR BODY WAS MADE FOR IT! :)

Good luck!

[Dov'sMom]

For me, it's the incredible feeling of pushing the baby out and the freedom to walk around right after birth. And the fact that if I end up with a C-section I don't want to have to second guess whether my decisions started the process that led to it.

On transition: my first labor was horrible, horrible back labor. I couldn't sleep Sunday night because of the contractions. By Monday 5 PM, they were about 5 minutes apart. By 9 PM, 2-3 minutes apart and over a minute long. DC was born 4 AM WEDNESDAY morning, so you get a sense of how long this horrible back labor took. I couldn't move to pick up my own cup of water without triggering unbearable agony.

I stayed home until my water broke Tuesday night and we saw meconium in the water, which I know in retrospect was the start of transition. That was about 11 PM. From then until well after 3 AM, the contractions were constant with less than 15-30 seconds break and I screamed straight through until I started to push. I thought I was going to die. I yelled at my support people to keep applying more and more counterpressure. They balked but I insisted they punch me, which provided some very minimal relief even though I ended up with bruises all across my lower back.

The next labor I was terrified I couldn't go through it again, not knowing what was ahead of me.  But this time the baby was facing the right way, so it was just normal labor, not back labor. 28 hours from start to finish, defining start as regular hard painful contractions less than 10 minutes apart. Transition was only an hour, and it was the funniest thing -- when I hit transition it was so much less painful than the previous labor, so much more manageable -- but my  brain was still screaming (silently) "I can't do this! I'm going to die! I need to stop this pain NOW!!!" The same happened my third labor (which was a fair bit longer). Now don't get me wrong, transition was plenty painful, but at the same time there was this tiny rational voice in my  head saying: "What are you talking about? This is so much easier than the first time. You did it the first time. What do you mean 'you can't do this'?"

Personally, I'm convinced it's the hormones. Transition causes a release of adrenaline and because of the pain my brain interprets that as "I'm going to die -- get me out of here!" That's the only way that reaction makes sense. Now, looking forward to my fourth birth in the next two months or so, I find I have this visceral fear reaction when thinking about transition, but luckily my rational brain can override it. And luckily I have time to impress on DH what I want rationally now so he can reason with me when I'm in the throes of my crazy hormone induced rush for meds...

Now the thought of another back labor like the first, THAT really scares me.

[Plummeting]

There is also the possibility that you could have a very fast labor, and get the epidural just a few minutes before the baby is born, meaning you'd be stuck in the bed, paralyzed and numb from the waist down, for a couple of hours afterwards. That happened to my sister twice, and it almost happened to her the third time, but she felt the urge to push just as the anesthesiologist was getting set up to do the epidural. Her labors were all under 4 hours, and I know this is unusual, but it could happen even to a person who has previously had longer labors. My first labor was almost 6 hours. My second was less than 1 hour. You just never know. It would be absolutely horrible being stuck in bed, catheterized and unable to clean yourself up for 2 hours after your baby was born, after having felt the whole labor because the epidural was only taking effect just as the baby was delivered.

Really, that's not as good as any of the great reasons already given, but those wonderful reasons have already been expounded upon. This is just one of the weirder, less likely, but interesting to contemplate, reasons. :)

[jenrose]

2 hours, 4 hours, even 6 hours of transition is NOTHING compared to the recovery from a c-section. And epidurals are not risk free. You want a natural birth because starting from the perspective of "I am going to do what I can to have a natural birth" is the best road to the best potential outcome with the least long-term negative consequences. If you go into it planning for a natural birth and your plans change, that's one thing, but if you go in planning to buy a ticket on the medical ride, you know from the start that your risks of problems goes up. 

Interventions are safest when used only when absolutely needed. When they are absolutely needed... they are a blessing. But the more they're used when not needed, the more like it is that something will go wrong that did not have to go wrong at all. 

I had a brutal, brutal transition last birth. And there's even a chance my body might have recovered faster from a cesarean. But my heart wouldn't have. And it wouldn't have done my daughter any favors, none whatsoever. 

[Psmythe]

also because you'll feel like a superhero after!

[Mizelenius]

YES.  I think this is huge.  Each time that I go into labor, I try to do so with open arms, if that makes sense.  I like to be left alone so that I can listen to myself.  I try not to think of pain-- just tightening.  Remember that you've done it before-- you can do it again. 

My transitions got shorter and easier with each labor.  The last time, there was no real transition that I experienced.

Originally Posted by Psmythe 

Let's just turn this sentence around and make it work for you...

Since I know what to expect this time around I won't be taken by surprise by the intensity of transition, so I won't be as scared.

Not being scared has a lot to do with how much the intense physical sensations of labor are interpreted by the brain as pain, and how much as pressure/other sensations.