Meds Q - Just Curious

[jraohc]

I don't know if this is the right place for this, but I'm wondering, do you think there is a correlation between how a woman handles "everyday illnesses" with how she handles pregnancy and childbirth? What I mean is, ...

* When I get a cold I don't take meds for it - it's just a cold and it'll go away in a few days. When dh gets a cold he rushes out to the drugstore to pick up "something" for it.

* When I get a headache I try to relax, hydrate myself, and wait for it to go away. When dh gets a headache he takes some pills so that it goes away.

* I had a stomach bug recently and I just rested as much as possible, kept myself hydrated, and let it run its course. When dh had a stomach bug recently he took all sorts of meds to combat it. When fil had a stomach bug he rushed off to the doctor's office.

I wanted a natural childbirth and saw no reason I would need drugs. My dh has difficultly understanding why I didn't want pain meds during labor/delivery.

What I'm wondering is, do you think there's a correlation between how we handle "everyday illnesses" and how we handle childbirth?

[Artisan]

I think in terms of philosophy, yes. If you are not of the mindset that the doctor and/or drugs are there to fix everything for you, you will have a better chance at achieving natural childbirth.

[pickle it]

I agree with Reader as to mindset, and I have often wondered if an individual woman's perception of "pain" has to do with her own experiences of pain througout her life.

If you think about it in modern society it is probably not unusual for a woman to get to her early twenties without ever experiencing real pain, such as a broken bone, serious wound, or an acute illness that two generations ago would be considered routine. So she's been told that labor is this horrible painful ordeal and that first real contraction hits, and it actually is the most uncomfortable she's ever been, so she looses it.

Of course a lot of us still get very ill and get injured but a lot of people probably don't. I know that I am in pain to varying degrees every single day because of my spine, and I would rather be in labor for the rest of my life than endure one day of bile peritonitis, which I had after my gallbladder sx.
People have told me that I'm very stoic but I don't think so. I think it's about relativity.

[Greaseball]

I don't know...I'm a total wuss IRL. If I get a cold I whine and whimper and lie around. The only reason I don't take drugs is because they taste bad. At the dentist, I get knocked out for a routine cleaning because I hate discomfort so much.

But I managed to give birth without drugs both times...

[Red Sonja]

I don't know. I get frequent migraines (6-7 a week without meds) and I take preventive meds and if I get a really bad one I'll take something for the pain. (I can't take triptans, so it has to be Fioricet or Percocet.) These migraines bring me to my knees. However that is about the only time I take meds.

My birth was unmedicated. (I'm also afraid if needles and refused an IV, that may have contributed. : ) I think that, for me, mindset has a lot to do with it. I have a very low pain tolerance but was determined to have a drug-free childbirth. For me it helped to know that the pain would end when ds was out, that it was a "productive" pain.

[sevenkids]

I've given birth seven times without pain meds, but cried for my Mama when I got my eyebrows waxed. :LOL
My friend waxing my brows laughed and said, "You've had seven kids, what are you crying about?"
I said, "Not out of my eyebrows!" :LOL

[darsmama]

I do notice that IRL the people who are "Epidural or C-section me up!" type people are the type that run to the Dr. for every little thing.
Case in point: Old friends jaw popped, she went to the ER. Some time later in labor, she made it until the first hard contraction (around 2 cm) and she requested her epidural, STAT!

But, that being said - I dont handle pain well. Toothaches especially. Give me drugs for those, I don't care what kind!

[CarrieMF]

For me it depends on the pain. For headaches I last a couple of hours and give in and then start popping the advil, quite often more than the recommended dose. I do it because I have a history of getting headaches for several days in a row(13 has been my record) a few times a month and by then you will do anything to get rid of the pain.

For illnesses I will go months before going in to see a dr. I do not get sick enough to go to a dr often(my colds and flus do not count as being sick enough to go to a dr, most of the time they are virus' anyhow), every few years. I have not had a flu in 4 or 5 years. When I get chest stuff I will wait 4-5months before going in and often I do not go in because it has resolved itself by then. Then there are people like my neighbor who runs to ER every time she sneezes the wrong way. No dr in town will take her on as a patient and she goes 45min to a different town now, she will even drive to the ER there for things that you should not go to the ER for.

In childbirth I took the laughing gas and with my last one dh approved demerol : I know if I would have had a doula with me I could have done them without the gas and definitly without the demerol(I did not feel the effects of it but she came so fast after she needed the Narcan).