How did you 'come' to natural birth? - Page 3

[Persephone]

I think I've always leaned that way. I have always hated taking drugs of any kind. I used to be scared my mom would overdose me on Tylenol when I was sick, and I opted not to fill an acne perscription when I was a teenager, cause I heard about the side effects. (I don't think it was Accutane, but the side effects were still nasty.) I learned that I wouldn't be in control of pushing with an epidural, and stubborn me HATED the idea of being told when to push! I was shocked that it had to be that way... *I* will be in charge of my own birth, thankyouverymuch!

Then, in HS, I got an opportunity to go to France with the French Club. So, I had to get a medical, and find out my blood type, and some other stuff. I HATE needles (another thing about the epi that turned me off... a needle that close to my spinal column??? EEEK!), and I told the nurse I didn't want her to take it from my arm, but to prick my finger instead. She didn't like that idea, but I actually walked out to the car ready to not go to France over it... anyway, my mom talked her into pricking my finger, and she agreed to... but she told me before she did it, "Well, you're going to HAVE to have an IV when you give birth..." And my first instinct was, "No I won't." That got me started thinking about what they could MAKE me do in hospitals, and what my options were. That very day, I went home and googled "waterbirth" because I had heard that this was a way to have a pretty enjoyable and pain free birth. I found Laura Shanley's site that day. And it was history from there.

[Peppamint]

I guess I always planned a natural birth. My mom had a spinal with me and said it was the worst thing. She hated that she wasn't in control of her bodily functions and couldn't push so they pulled me out with forceps and gave her a nice episiotomy. Her next two were natural births... and my youngest brother was an induction. Although my parents teased me because I was a baby about the slightest things (stub my toe and cry cry cry) they did encourage me... and I think migraines beginning at 13yo did put pain into perspective for me.

Unfortunately, I was naive enough to believe that my OB would give me a natural birth and once my bp hit at the awful awful level of 130/80 she was ready to induce. I don't know how, but even when the contractions were the worst and one on top of each other I still refused an epidural because I was scared to death to have them messing around my spine with needles (just think, over the course of the previous week they had blown all the veins in my hands and wrists ). A shot of Nubain when I unknowingly hit transition after being told it would be hours, pushing in lithomy position and a nice deep episiotomy rounded out my "natural" birth. I just thank God that I still enjoyed a birth high to get me through the postpartum period.

A time went by, I realized my birth had been over-managed and I began looking for ways to homebirth. At home I enjoyed a true natural birth and I'm looking forward to another.

[Squeakyneedle]

After three hospital births, first assisted with the vacuum after laboring without the epidural I wanted and "augmented" with pit, second and third induced due to health problems for me, both with epi's and they popped right out....oddly enough what caused me to start searching this 4th time was the desire to avoid and episiotomy. For me, that was the worst thing about each birth. The recovery from a cut was excruitiating. I knew labor pains lasted a lot shorter than recovery from stitches, so I started asking questions and reading a LOT. I found that in a hospital setting, things were managed in such a way that I wouldn't be free to do the things I had read that helps avoid getting cut. I read more and more about midwives, and sought one out for a consult. My next OB appointment I really clashed with a doc I hadn't seen before (over a flu shot of all things, well, that and she didn't agree that being upright during delivery was what opened you up more...she said it was bringing your knees back. Whatever) When I realized there were 2 out of 5 docs in the practice I wouldn't want attending me, and that I had no control over who would be there at the last minute, I switched to the midwife at a free standing birth center. Now I know for sure who will be there, and that she will help me acheive my goals of a birth with as little intervention as possible. I knew that one intervention leads to another, and in a hospital setting it's really hard to avoid all of them. I knew even the fact that they wanted me in the bed on a monitor for 15 minutes ever hour could turn an otherwise productive, active, natural labor into a situation where I'd scream for drugs and just did not want to risk it. I also had the sneaking suspicion that although I had no complications from my previous epidurals that I might not get so lucky if I opted for one this time around. I know it's better for the baby, and I will recover faster if I'm not trying to rid my body of excess fluids or drugs. I had even read adverse things happening from a simple IV. I didn't want to waste my energy trying to refuse things in a hospital, I wanted to instead focus on birthing my baby.

In less than 6 weeks I get to see how well I will do!

[*Devon*]

I am the opposite of the OP-- ever since I was a little girl I have imagined myself as a mom.... I have these little stories I make up in my head, , and ever since I was young they have involved pregnancy, birth, and babies. I love in movies whenever they had a baby outside of a hospital, in a car or something like that, and I used to imagine myself in situations like that... never in a hospital, drugged up and managed by a doc. I am pretty crunchy, too. I've also always been fascinated by waterbirth.

(I swear, it's not totally weird that I do this, I just read a lot and write some and I like to wonder how things are going to happen for me)

So anyway, I started reading Mothering because of the articles on the vax/autism connection and as soon as I read an article on homebirth, I was HOOKED. So I guess for me it came easily and even though I feel like a weirdo for hanging out here even though I don't even have a boyfriend, I am glad that I have already doen my research and have a very clear idea of what I want, especially after hearing all the horror stories of traumatic hospital births and my goes out to all the mamas who have had those experiences!

[Persephone]

Devon, I was hanging out on natural parenting boards LONG before I had a bf, or even was close to having a baby. Good for you for being here and learning so much ahead of time.

[AnditheBee]

(Even though my daughter's birth ended in a c-sec, I did plan a natural birth and labored naturally for 14 hours, so I'll pitch in my two cents...)

For me it was a continuum, a buildup of both mindsets and experiences that got me to the attitudes I have today. My mom naturally birthed six kids, five of us over 8 lbs (and the first one 9 lbs 5 oz), without drugs at a time when other moms were getting "twilight sleep" and lord knows what else. She was always rather matter-of-fact, yet low-key whenever she talked about giving birth: "Yes, it hurts, but I've had worse pain." So I grew up with that kind of attitude. I've also had some really, really bad menstrual and bowel cramps in my life (enough to make me both vomit and pass out), so the idea of pain didn't scare me personally when I got pregnant. I was still fairly ambiguous about whether or not to get an epi, though, since I had two friends who had them and had really smooth, easy births. But then I found out that you can't feel your legs and I said, well HE** with that!!

Then a friend of mine recommended that we hire a doula (she regretted not having one at her first birth), so we did, and at some point my doula gave me "The Birth Book" to read. As I read it, I began to realize how doctors' interventions are often not helpful...it wasn't until I had read a couple more books written from a "birth is normal" viewpoint that I really understood how bizarre the concept of medicated birth really is when considered as the "default" approach. It just made a great deal of sense. I had already come to realize that most doctors really only know how to prescribe medications, not to "heal" using the body's normal functions, and I could see how that same lack of knowledge was being applied to birth, mostly unnecessarily.

I do think that if someone chooses to have a medicated birth, she should have that choice. I just think that everyone should be educated as much as possible about normal birth before making any decisions.

[applejuice]

My FAther was a Chiropractor who delivered eight of the nine of us at home; I was the first in 1954.

It is unique to have watched my own siblings born at home in an era of drugged deliveries and weeklong stays in recovery in the hospital; then to have 50%+ of all of my contemporaries deliver by caesarean section when I have my own four at home is a unique outlook on this era of medical birth.

My conclusion? Homebirth is best. Why bother with anything else?

[cottonwood]

I never thought much about it, to be honest. No one in my family has *ever* talked about birth, so I didn't have much in the way of preconceptions re: pain, epidurals, etc. I just assumed that for most women the baby just comes out and they do it in the hospital because it's more sanitary. Ha ha, silly me!

So I wasn't ever thinking about needing drugs. And I had never heard of pitocin, episiotomy, vacuum extrators, etc. I just wasn't aware of birth as normally being this highly medicalized managed process. I was completely oblivious and ignorant.

Which is why I completely lucked out -- if I'd had a hospital birth I would have been in deep trouble. I have no doubt that a natural birth would not have come out of that. But as it was my SIL had had a homebirth, so I knew it was a possibility, and after my first appointment with my OB -- which was really not the most pleasant experience -- I still didn't know anything, I just had this very intuitive sense that I should find a midwife instead.

Just plain luck.

Now, how I came to natural natural birth -- that is, spontaneous instinctive birth, not just non-medicalized vaginal birth -- is another story. I had had a "natural" but traumatic first birth with a midwife at home, and a long recovery both emotionally and physically. Around the same time that I started being honest with myself about why it turned out that way, I found an internet forum called hipMama where people were talking about really extreme fringe ideas beyond the usual alternatives. And, as they say, the rest is history.

[*guest]

Love everyone's stories. I never imagined a husband and kids in my future either. In fact, I still don't think I would be considering kids without this particular partner. My mother had unmedicated births with both her kids, me in a hospital, and my sister at home. After hearing my birth story and attending the home birth, I knew there was no way in hell I'd want to go to a hospital. She got the 1970s works: enema, shaving, being confined to bed, and she had to embarass the doctor out of cutting her. I believe his line was "Women in 3rd world countries have babies who die because they can't get episiotomies," and she replied "But they don't have good doctors like you to support their skin." Hahahaha.

I did a lot of research before I got pregnant. It was the only way I could make peace with the idea: to really understand pregnancy and birth physiology and to know my rights and options. Seeing my friend's pitocin induction last summer really sealed the deal. I don't even have a problem with doctors or medical treatment when necessary. I've had an i.v. before, and I have no problem giving blood, etc. But I don't think medical intervention should be a normal part of birth. It seems like such a no-brainer that the more you do, the more you change the normal process.