I just finished watching a birth show where a woman had a water birth, which is done completely naturally. There was a LOT of moaning and eye closing. It seems that every time I watch a learning show about childbirth, the women who go natural says things such as, “my body is splitting in half,” or “I can’t do this anymore,” or simply scream and scream and scream in pain. As soon as a portion of these women call in the anesthesiologist, they suddenly calm and seem to “enjoy” labor more. They almost slide those babies out compared to their natural-going friends.
While I give the water birth and au naturale women a lot of credit and wish I could be so brave, I am choosing to go EPIDURAL - if I can. As mothers-to-be, we’d all like to be planners, but of course this can never happen with a birth. So the reality is that sometimes you don’t make it in time to get the epidural and you have an unexpected natural birth, or it wears off, or you need a C-section. Whatever the outcome is, we’d all like to have control in at least having a plan for the big day.
I have a few reasons for being in the epidural camp:
#1: I am a big fan of modern medicine. And while women didn’t have this option years ago, I have it now, and I’m sure the women from the Middle Ages would smack me down for not using it.
#2: Many women I have talked to that had natural childbirth with one child and an epidural for the other said the epidural birth was a lot more “enjoyable.”
#3: I have a vaso-vagul nerve response to pain. This means that often times, when my body is in severe pain, it shuts down. It usually involves fainting accompanied by a mild seizure. So I’d prefer to be awake and alert during this time.
#4: Right now, knowing I have the option for an epidural is my safety blanket, like my version of a doula. It’s the instrument to guide me to relaxation and strength on the big day.
BUT – birth plans, childbirth classes, yoga, reading, etc., can only get us so far. Ya never know what could happen, so keeping an open mind to every option is the best thing women can do to prepare for the biggest marathon in which we can’t fully train!
Very interesting Sivan! I was planning to go natural but ended up having back labor and nitemarish back to back contractions for 7 hrs with no break in between contractions. Having experienced both during my labor (natural and w epidural) I can tell u there are ups and downs to both sides. The epidural helped me tremendously and luckily I dilated while on it. I also didn't feel my contractions...at ALL which was very strange and when it came time to push, luckily I made sure the epidural wore off a bit so I could feel the pushing, plus all my kegel exercises and yoga helped a lot! However many times it doesn't work that way. You see my baby's heart did slow down during contractions which is typical of epidurals. Luckily I had an amazing midwife who knew I wanted to have a vaginal birth. The problem w epidurals is they often lead to pitocin and then more epidural and then more pitocin etc until the only option is a c section. Also my newborn had some side effects from the epidural the first week after birth. Her stools were largely affected by the iv and she had a hard time latching. I think its important to know the risks going into it.....with that said, an epidural can be a tremendous help in certain births....like mine.
ReplyDeleteAnd I had a hospital birth .....why is this saying mobile notary los Angeles?
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the risks of epidural as well. I hear that many doctors hold off on giving the epidural so it doesn't slow the labor as much. I'm not sure why you are labeled as Mobile Notary, and I'm not sure who you are!!!
ReplyDeleteRachel from silver lake yoga! Digging your controversial blog!
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