Why Natural Childbirth? - Page 3

[MrsKoehn]

I chose a whole lot of the options there. I have Crohns and the drs with whom I first went were making me worse and telling me to do things that didn't make sense. I started looking into natural options, almost by chance, and it just went from there. I really like to be as natural and able to decide as possible. I want to keep meds out of me and my baby. My Mom had hospital mw births with the first 5 of us kids, no difference that when #6 came along and she had to have him with a family dr. Also, my hubby was born at home, delivered by his aunt. Many of my nieces and nephews, and hubby's cousins have had home births, and there's no problem with any of them. I would just feel better at home too.

[trimommy2009]

I've always considered birth as a natural thing, so an epidural never really entered into my thought process.  When I became pregnant with my first I started researching birth  and then I became convinced I didn't want the cascade of interventions that could occur.  I just kept saying, I'm a triathlete, I do Ironman's for fun, I can do this.  :)  Two babies later, an Ironman is still WAY harder then NCB.  

[mleawicks]

Originally Posted by slmommy 

hahaha where can I write to have my medal sent??? I never got one? Maybe I should start bragging?

one of my friends wants to give me one. another says I braver then her. i think it take more guts to go to H. scary place. that would be why I choose NCB

[foreverinbluejeans]

After I had 3 natural births I found out I couldn't have had an epidural if I wanted one. I have arthritis in my spine and they can't get a needle in the space where they do epidurals. I had pneumonia and septicemia when my youngest was 5 weeks old and they wanted to do a spinal tap to see if the infection had spred to my spinal fluid. After 3 people had each tried twice to do the spinal tap they took me to radiology and figured out the needle can't fit. It's called spondylosis. A radiologist was able to use a fluoroscope to get a needle in another place but they wouldn't do that for childbirth. Good thing I wasn't planning on an epidural.

When I was pregnant in 1979 I was a medical lab technologist and I knew a lot about the area hospitals. IVs were in glass bottles not plastic bags. There were problems with bacterial contamination in the glass bottles and people were getting septicemia from getting IVs. So I didn't want an IV. Right around that time in several hospitals in the area there were problems with infections on the OB floors. They weren't letting anyone visit on the OB floors or be with the mothers for births, not even fathers. One father handcuffed himself to his wife to try and be with her for the birth of their baby. It was not a good time to have a baby. We drove 1.5 hours to a birth center to have a CNM deliver our baby. People thought I was crazy. Home birth was illegal in the state so that wasn't an option. All went well. The drive wasn't bad. The labor and birth went well with no interventions. Breastfeeding was easy.

[fitjenn]

@LittleBirdy - I'm fascinated by your description of natural childbirth..."You know what you're getting - pain. But the pain isn't harmful to you. It just hurts."

Love this!!

[erigeron]

^^^I find it easier to deal with pain when I know why I'm in pain and that it isn't presaging damage to my body. Childbirth was still painful, yes, but there was also a difference between the pain of childbirth and the added pain when I pushed what seemed to be too hard, so I backed off that one because i didn't want to tear.

[llwr]

I voted for lots of the options. 

I also wanted to add that it's really amazing to feel how powerful your body is and how wonderfully it's made.  I had an epi late with my first.  I had an undeniable urge to push at 7, had been in hard labor all night, and was getting no support.  (A sidenote: If you're planning NCB, your provider is really important.  DH was military at the time, so we didn't have a choice, but I think I could have made it to the end with my awesome midwife.)  I would be really disappointed if I had a medical situation that meant I couldn't labor.  

[Mama Chickadee]

My mom is an anesthesiologist, and, among other things, she is the person who does epidurals on laboring women. 

She birthed both my brother and I naturally, and was a Bradley birth coach for a time, and unless otherwise medically indicated, recommends natural child birth. 

So, while I have my own thoroughly researched reasons for wanting to birth naturally, I figure if my mom, the person who GIVES the epidurals does not recommend them, that's a strong reason not to get them!!!

[Quinalla]

I was willing to have an epidural if the pain got very bad, I think that epidurals can be really great for women whose pain is so distracting that they can't relax, but for me the pain would have had to be pretty bad before considering it since I have had negative experiences with anesthesia (it tends to knock me out way more than it "should", I get nauseated, I stay numb for much longer than I "should") and there are risks of issues for mom and baby not to mention the potential for the cascade of interventions and it maybe not even working at all (though I didn't worry about this too much). I had confidence that if I had a fairly normal labor that I could manage the pain. Luckily for me my labor was on the fast side and no issues with baby in a weird position or any of that. I did consider the epidural when I was in transition, but then I was like, oh yeah, transition and kept my mouth shut. Transition was too fast for me to have gotten one anyway, but I'm glad I was able to recognize it correctly.

[YvonneC-M]

With my first baby, I had been in labor for two and a half days, and dilated only 6 cm, when I decided to have an epidural. My main motivation was to be able to sleep. This was a Saturday morning, and I hadn't slept since the previous Tuesday night. The epidural did allow me to sleep and rest enough to later make it through the pushing stage (2.5 hours), and I'm thankful for that, but toward the end of the dilation stage, my back hurt and I was so uncomfortable from not being allowed to sit up, that I don't have good memories of that part of my labor. Ironically, the parts before and after, where I was in pain but not medicated, and free to move around, I remember fondly. I'm now pregnant and due to give birth any day now, and am resolved to make it all the way through without any interventions.

[Storm Bride]

I haven't answered the poll, because I'm not going to be having any more babies, and I've never actually had a natural childbirth.

But, I had lots of reasons for wanting one. The biggest was probably just that I really wanted to fully experience the whole thing - the good, the bad and the ugly...but that may be tied with my intense hatred of numbness. I've never experienced any pain that was harder on me than the numbness of a spinal. I don't know how spinal really compares to an epi, but I get the feeling they're pretty close. They freak me right out, and I hate them more than I can say. (I do remember thinking late in my labour with Aaron - not that long before I transferred, so...maybe 40 hours in?...that I could see getting one to enable me to sleep...but I still didn't want it. They're terrifying.)

[JennyHu]

Because labor is shorter, less chance for major surgery & less probability for complications for ALL future pregnancies. The pain in birth is not 'missery' pain. It's pain that is manageable leading to the most prolific joy & deep bonding (b/c the largest surge in oxytocin (the love hormone) of a woman's entire life happens during birth) we'll ever feel. I don't know why we women listen to the media...birth certainly has discomfort, but it's manageable. 

Check out this inspiring interview with Cindy Crawford on YourBabyBooty- http://yourbabybooty.com/interviews/how-i-managed-pain-in-natural-childbirth-with-cindy-crawford/

[fayebond]

For myself with children, there is always a now-versus-later conumdrum when it comes to painful moments I think. The epi sounds less painful now, just like giving in to a disobedient toddler sounds less painful than consistently saying "no".  But.  Eventually, you have to deal with the pain.  And if you deal with it now, its much less painful than dealing with it later.  Eventually the toddler will be big enough to do real damage, and you'll have to really say no but it will be much more painful to do so.  Its nice to avoid the whole ring of fire in theory, but in practice, you can hurt yourself ALOT more with an epi just by pushing too hard (let alone the back injuries, interventions, having a CS, etc).   I felt my epi, it worked, it worked good, and it was SO. NOT. WORTH. IT.

Originally Posted by buko 

1) I am not a "good patient"-- believe it or not, probably BECAUSE my mom is an awesome doctor (who practiced evidence-based medicine, almost to a fault).  That means I question everything, want to discuss everything, and get really irritated when anyone takes a "because I told you so" attitude with me.  Or worse-- "because it's standard procedure."  Oh, H3LL NO.  At the same time, I loathe face-to-face confrontation unless necessary.  Thus-- as long as I'm low-risk, it's not an emergency blahbitty blah boilerplate disclaimer-- I NEED to be the decision-maker and be working in as much of an "unimpaired state" as possible.  Not to "control" things, exactly, but not to put myself in the position of passive object if it's not an emergency.  To put myself in the most respectful possible space, with professionals whose judgment I trust.  FTMP, that will be homebirth for me, with MWs who are highly-educated and experienced.

buko, you and I should plan a kereoke appointment at the OBs.  I'm looking forward to HB mostly because I will be able to make decisions better, on my own, without so much pressure, than with some many opinions crashing down around me.  Especially the opinion of the procedure booklet, that one was really annoying!

Originally Posted by purplerose 

that medal we always hear about!

BWAHAHAHA

Seriously, getting to see my baby right after he/she is born is going to be the best prize ever.  The worst CS memory I have is of being indifferent to my baby and my body, I want to avoidthat like crazy.  Okay, that and the two weeks of stokedoutzombiehood and the 6 weeks of immobility and the 6 months of no babies and the 13 months of abdominal pain and the crazy VBAC rules...

[zjande]

I too checked off most of those. But for me the #1 reason would have to be the "Holy Toledo! Have you seen the size of that needle!?" one. lol I can't fathom volunteering to let someone stick a big ol' needle right into my spinal cord! It's straight out of a nightmare to imagine. I've had all 6 of mine naturally. 

[mambera]

Ok the epi needle does not go into your spinal cord (that would be a great way to lose sensation to the lower half of your body for good).  The spinal cord ends about the middle of the back, the epi needle goes in well below that point and stays outside the covering of the cord, the dura (hence epi+dural).   It's just adding some anesthetic to the fluid in the spinal canal, bathing the nerve roots as they enter/exit the cord space.

[zjande]

Originally Posted by mambera 

Ok the epi needle does not go into your spinal cord (that would be a great way to lose sensation to the lower half of your body for good).  The spinal cord ends about the middle of the back, the epi needle goes in well below that point and stays outside the covering of the cord, the dura (hence epi+dural).   It's just adding some anesthetic to the fluid in the spinal canal, bathing the nerve roots as they enter/exit the cord space.

My exact anatomy understanding is flawed then, but still!  I couldn't let someone do that to me voluntarily. It just seems too scary. I also am afraid of not being in control of myself and my body. For example, I've had fans of drugs like LSD explain to me how awesome it is to be so out of control of your body have all those interesting hallucinations... but to me that just sounds terrifying. I much prefer to BE in my own body, and have control of it. Having half of it numb would be frightening and distracting to me.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by zjande 

My exact anatomy understanding is flawed then, but still!  I couldn't let someone do that to me voluntarily. It just seems too scary. I also am afraid of not being in control of myself and my body. For example, I've had fans of drugs like LSD explain to me how awesome it is to be so out of control of your body have all those interesting hallucinations... but to me that just sounds terrifying. I much prefer to BE in my own body, and have control of it. Having half of it numb would be frightening and distracting to me.

I loved LSD back in the day, but I don't remember ever feeling so out of control of my body. I agree about the numbness. I find it terrifying...and it wasn't any better with repetition.

[fayebond]

The worst part about the epi for me wasn't the actual birth, I was too focused on getting baby out.  It was once I started trying to do anything else (think, stand, ANYTHING) that it was bad.  Because I couldn't do anything, at all.  I was a zombie for two weeks after that epi and just enough of my brain was awake to know how debilitating it was.  I still get back pain there from time to time.  With baby #2, I am willing to do pretty much anything to avoid that again, the birth went fine but recovery was HORRIBLE.  Nothing is worth going through that again, and no amount of pain or sleeplessness or whatever is going to deter me from having a natural childbirth this time.  The only medal I want is the ability to stand, on my own, within the first week.  That's it.

[KristyDi]

The biggest reason for me was that I did not what a c-section so I voted that I didn't want the cascade of interventions. My mom had 4 c-sections and has had some minor, but life long complications.  Plus the idea of being strapped down while they cut my baby from my body terrified me.  I know there are situations where it can save either baby, mama or both and I'm glad it exists, but it's absolutly not what I'd choose.

 Also I believe strongly that my body is healthy and birth is a normal function of a healthy female body, that God designed me to be able to do this..  There are usually concequences to messing with natural processes so I wanted my births to be natural.

[31rubies]

Ok. Thinking mostly of epidurals, I picked concerns about me, concerns about baby, concerns about freedom of movement.

I experienced an accidental dura puncture with my last birth.  After THAT experience, epidurals are on my "only if absolutely needed hopefully never again needed definitely not routinely" list.  

One thing that surprises me is that women say you can't feel the baby come out or the urge to push.  I felt my babes and had strong urges to push with the epidurals.  But everyone responds to drugs and such differently.  Plain tylenol makes my grandmother sleepy :)

Edited by 31rubies - 11/4/12 at 5:30pm