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Natural Birth
starrysmile18
member
FTM, Very interested in Natural Labor
starrysmile18
member
Hey ladies, I'm a FTM, due Sept 3, and I am very much interested in a labor with no meds, unless medically necessary, that is.
I was just wondering if you could share some of your insights/stories as to why you prefer the natural way. I have a few ideas of books that were suggested to me as well.
TIA!
~~~ EDD for Baby #2 6/28/15~~~~
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Re: FTM, Very interested in Natural Labor
I haven't given birth yet, but am planning a natural birth. We chose this route because of a belief that pregnancy and birth are a natural process, something my body was created to do and not a disease or major medical event. ALSO, use of epidurals or other pain meds can increase the rate of further intervention. For example, getting an epidural you must be hooked up to monitors, IV, and the epi may slow down your labor. If that happens they most likely will give you pitocin to help labor along. Pitocin can increase pain so they would up the epi, then possibly give more pit - it can be a downward spiral. The doctors say pitocin is just the same as oxytocin (which is what your body produces naturally), but I am not so sure of this as babies born with use of epi/pitocin are not as quick to latch to breastfeed. I should also add that every single one of my friends/family who have used an epidural have ended up with c-sections.
I am also a FTM. We have chosen to use a midwife in a hospital. We will also have a doula and are taking Bradley method birth classes to help us prepare as much as possible for a natural birth.
Aside from the fact that I have a close family member who is a midwife (so I have had a lot of exposure to how differently OB and midwives work), I also watched "The Business of Being Born" (it should be available on Netflix DVD and streaming). I liked the documentary b/c it did focus on natural birth, but they were quick to point out that yes, there are times when medical intervention is necessary for the life of the mother and child (the main example is their camera woman). I highly recommend watching the video.
I decided to give natural a try after delivering my first. I asked for an epi and got it and immediately started pushing, whoops. I was at 10cm. I pushed 2 hours. It was a good experience, I could move around, squat, etc. with the epi just fine. I walked to the bathroom to pee shortly after delivering my first son, really, nothing bad happened with the epi. But, I felt like if only I had known how close I was, I could have easily managed.
So, second time around I hoped to go med free. And I did. It was a quick delivery and I won't say it didn't hurt, because it did, but I felt like I could FLY the minute the baby was delivered. Seriously. I felt like I could walk the 5km home in -35 weather no problems.
Both were good experiences, but I preferred med free and if I did it again I'd aim for med free again.
I didn't really have a lot of reasoning behind my decision to have a natural birth. I've read the stats, but for me it came down to a gut decision. I generally believe that natural is better than non-natural (there are exceptions, obviously, and I experienced that first-hand when DS1 needed to be born via c-section), so my goal was a natural childbirth for both my children. I achieved that with DS2- all-natural, home waterbirth. It wasn't necessarily easy, but if I could do it again I wouldn't change my decision and opt for a highly medicalized birth.