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I was pretty quiet during labour. At the pushing stage I just kept crying and saying I couldn't do it but no shouting or anything. And I kept apologising for pooing on the bed although apparently I didn't (not sure I believe them).
Oh and I am a short woman (5'3" I think) and my baby was a 9lber with a head circumference on the 99th percentile - they really shouldn't have taken my gas and air away at the pushing stage!
I really don't understand the women who want to give birth without medicine. What in the world would make them want to do it "naturally"? What's so great about having to bear the pain that nature gives you instead of trying to escape it? It's like saying: nature just blew my lights in the house, I will happily bear it and will try to live without the lights, because it's the "natural" way. Or if the tsunami comes, you say: I will die happily because it's the natural way, it's what nature wants me to do.
And here is another weird thing. People go around and spread flu and give it to their loved ones. Why don't they care? Why do they easily just forward a week or two of misery to their friend or relative? I think they should have cared enough not to do that. But it's like their brain doesn't know that it's a bad thing.
Well not even try to answer the second question, but giving birth without meds is better for your baby we have been told. On the other hand, in most cases our babies are just fine, even when we do use the help of pain killers. i remember years ago, we had a friend who did have all 4 of her babies, including twins totally without any meds. A mutural friend,using the same doctor was wishing she had the guts to have her's naturally. tYou did have yours natually, you just had the help of a little medicine.
I guess we could ask the same quesion about why some women want to have their babies in a bath and hubby to join in?
Traditionally if you don't over-eat and gain too much weight, your baby should not go about 7lbs then you should be able to push the baby out fine. Today too many women are too over weight during pregnancy which cause their baby to get too big.
Epidural should be use as late as possible because it can complicate delivery. You may have problems feeling where the baby and the contractions can go numb with it.
It's best to administer epidural when the pain is too much that causes you to not have any strength.
As for C-Sections vs natural, one should alway go natural as the 1st choice unless doctors believe you need a C-section.
Once you choose a C-Sec then you have nothing but complications later on if you care about a pretty tummy say hello to scars.
I had an epidural with my son. We got to the hospital and it was something I felt I needed. But they were swamped, women waiting in the hallway and sending some to other hospitals. By late evening I was still in labor, and exhausted and slept. The nurse in the morning said the night crew hadn't checked. My husband had curled up on the floor and I was ready to go, except nothing was happening.
He turned out to be stuck, with dad's big head. I was numbed up with a boast on the epidural since they didn't know which way would work to get him born. They used this vaccum cap and it failed, and finally forcepts. They said in my case it was good I had the epidural since there wouldn't have been time to do one before the forcepts and he was physically stuck.
The only sign was a bruse on his forehead from the forcepts. But I waited forever in the hallway not only for a room but to be able to feel my toes.
I did take a natural childbirth class, but knew it wouldn't be enough. And the breathing they taught helped a whole lot so even if one doesn't know if they'll go all the way, its worth it to learn the breathing.
There wasn't a second but I'd have gone with drugs then too. Hopefully a less busy day for the maternity ward too....
My mother had five children with no drugs, so I figured I could too. The first time I got to the hospital too late for anything anyway. The second birth I figured, well I did it once I could do it again. Neither of them were too bad or too long.
I would never judge the choices another woman makes. I'm a redhead, so I think I have more pain tolerance anyway. I also wanted to be completely lucid when they came and experience the whole thing.
No judging here, just my experiences. In the late 70's, there was a lot of positives written about natural and pain free childbirth .(I know, I know) . My on/gym group had free classes on the Lamaze method. So I figured I'd give it a go. First, childbirth is painful. Orgasm? Oh please, in what universe? I did deliver 4 children, including full term twins, without pain medication. Each birth was a different experience. I believed I was keeping medication from the babies systems, which is what we were told. For me, it was a great experience and I'm glad I did it. But that does not invalidate anyone else's choices.
I really don't understand the women who want to give birth without medicine. What in the world would make them want to do it "naturally"? What's so great about having to bear the pain that nature gives you instead of trying to escape it?
I did it 'naturally', though in a different sense.
I figure it was perfectly natural for me
to want pain-killers to alleviate the intense
pain that accompanies induced labor!
I remember screaming something along the lines of "I'm dying!" over and over. I laugh about it now, but at the time the pain was so intense I really thought my pelvis was going to pop off! The poor nurses and doctors tried to ssshhh me, as I was no doubt terrifying the entire labor and delivery unit
Wow, just goes to show how different people, and deliveries are. I had four kids naturally and only one with a SMALL amount of Demoral - the rest with no pain meds - and I didn't holler, or cry, or scream, or cuss, or do anything particularly noisy - though I do remember making some "heave ho" sorts of noises as I pushed - which actually felt more alarming and overwhelming than actually PAINFUL.
My third delivery was very painful, but it was because the baby's shoulders got stuck and I had to be turned over on my side and they had to use all sorts of tricks and paraphernalia to dislodge him - all of which was definitely painful and scary. But I'm actually glad I could feel what was going on because I could control my pushing exactly as they requested. And I think I did, at one point, cry out something like, "Oh my God - is he OUT YET?????"
But three out of four isn't a bad track record. The other three were not at all overwhelmingly painful - intense, exciting, at times intimidating to some extent, but not any level of pain that I couldn't manage well and breathe through.
And no, you can't always get an epidural if the pain gets too bad. Sometimes it's not medically appropriate, either for the mother or for the baby, or both.
One reason many women give birth unmedicated is we've been told it's safer for the baby.
Just a note...I said most can always get an epidural..i never said everyone qualifies for them.
Yes, because c-sections are just a walk in the park...no pain involved.
My Aunt's c-section was no worse than any other surgery...according to her, most of her pain was exacerbated because she refused to take the pain medication afterwards...a couple weeks of recovery time was needed of course, but after that she was up and running..as with any operation though, everyone is different.
Last edited by soletaire; 04-29-2015 at 02:49 PM..
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