IVF & Natural Birth- Encouragement & Advice

dmhrn13 · June 2012

I'm posting here & the success after IF board.

I'm a midwife, pregnant with my first baby. I had 2 natural pregnancies with miscarriages, 3 failed IUI's & 2 IVF's- my second one resulted in this pregnancy with a singleton.

Having infertility & IVF has changed the way I see my body & myself as a woman. I know it sounds silly but I'm totally terrified of labor. My practice considers IVF high risk & I will be watched very closely at the end. I'm afraid I'll be induced, I'm giving birth in the hospital.

I love birth & babies & became a midwife because of it. I really want to have a natural & spontaneous birth.

Has anyone had natural birth after IVF? Did you have any fears like mine? How did you reconcile needing "help" getting the baby in & not wanting or needing "help" getting it out??

jennyann28 · June 2012

I did not have IVF. But, that is only because we got a surprise miracle baby while we were saving up to do IVF w/ ICSI. As soon as we started seeing the RE, I felt the desire to have an interventionless birth since we thought it would take SO much intervention to get there. My pregnancy became high-risk after the anatomy scan, which meant tons of doctors and monitoring, further fueling my desire for a natural birth. Luckily, my perinatologist was a consulting doctor, and I still got to see my midwives for my prenatal care. In spite of everything, I was able to avoid induction at the end (well, mostly, my water broke but labor didn't start on it's own so I had 1/4 pill of Cytotec), and have the pain med free birth I wanted. So while I wasn't in your shoes exactly, I think I know how you feel. It helped me to have my MWs - I knew that even if I needed more interventions, they'd start small. Good luck to you!

Celyn · June 2012

I didn't have IVF. I just wanted to say congrats!

amandaleigh1 · June 2012

I am pregnant as the result of ivf. I feel like I needed so much intervention to get pregnant in the first place makes me even more determined to have as little intervention as possible in giving birth. There is a caveat: we tried so hard for so long to get here that I am a bit cautious about my birth environment, so I am choosing natural birth in a hospital. At the end of the day, a healthy baby is more important to me than whether or not I have an epidural.

I am curious as to why you are being treated as high risk. Ivf at my ob practice has not put me in a high risk camp. Neither has my age. Maybe you would feel more comfortable in a practice where you ate not being classified as high risk. You may also find it a good idea to hire a birth doula to help you have the kind I'd birth experience you want.

hopecounts · June 2012

I'm also wondering why you are being classified as high risk? I did DE IVF and wasn't considered High Risk.

In your shoes I'd probably look for a new care provider but I'm big on making decisions based on reason and research and a doctor who isnt wouldn't be a good fit for me.

Toni79 · June 2012

Congratulations!

We were unexplained IF, and after 3 years, 3 IUIs, and 3 IVFs, we are expecting our baby July 24!

I've always wanted a natural birth. But as previous posters have mentioned, after all the interventions we went through to get pregnant, I feel even more stronlgy about having a drug free, non-intervention birth.

I'm also surprised that they put you in a high risk category just because of IVF??? When we graduated from our RE, my RE told me that IVF did not equal high risk. My OB told me the same thing. Then, I actually transfered to a midwife practice at 30 weeks pregnant, and the midwife also told me the same thing.

Here's a post as to why I switched to a midwife: https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/66177437.aspx

Anyway, I think you have a foot-up on the rest of us, since you are a midwife and have experience with women in labor, etc. My best advise is to trust your training and experiences and of course your body. And to find a provider that you are on the same page with. I know, normally you are on the other side of the questions, so I'm sure that will be weird! LOL!

I totally understand about not trusting your body. I sort of feel like if my body couldn't get pregnant, what makes me think that it can naturally push out a baby. I'm just trying to educate myself as much as possible and hopefully mentally prepair myself as much as possible for the big event.

You might want to sit through a Bradley class (however I'm sure you already know all the stuff!)

Or maybe getting into meditation might work for you, something like hypnobirthing. I haven't read any hypnobirthing books, but I have been trying to practice relaxation and meditation techniques. You might find this helpful, since you already know all the technical stuff.

Hope this helps!

GL!

dmhrn13 · June 2012

REI's don't do a great job explaining why IVF is high risk- but I take care of a number of IVF patients & we work closely with MFM docs. They have provided me with paper after paper supporting the fact that they don't understand why, but IVF patients are at increased risk for pre-eclampsia, preterm birth, & the placenta getting "old" at the end of pregnancy- so going over your due date isn't the best idea.

Thats what has me stressed out! But its great to hear natural birth stories. I just think I need to dig deep to find the strength to say, "I can do this". Thanks Ladies!

dmhrn13 · June 2012

Actually, I am also a hypnobirthing teacher! And I practice TM. I guess this is just a matter of me giving up control- like you said I "know" a lot mentally, but I have to get out of my way & let my body do its work.

dmhrn13 · June 2012

YES! We've gone through so much to get this baby- I agree, I'll do what it takes to have a happy, healthy little girl. I always thought I' d have a home birth until all this- maybe I'm just mourning the idea of the birth I saw myself having & now I just need to accept something different but equally wonderful.

farmerlynda · June 2012

dmhrn13:
REI's don't do a great job explaining why IVF is high risk- but I take care of a number of IVF patients & we work closely with MFM docs. They have provided me with paper after paper supporting the fact that they don't understand why, but IVF patients are at increased risk for pre-eclampsia, preterm birth, & the placenta getting "old" at the end of pregnancy- so going over your due date isn't the best idea.

Thats what has me stressed out! But its great to hear natural birth stories. I just think I need to dig deep to find the strength to say, "I can do this". Thanks Ladies!

I think it really, truly depends on your diagnosis, age, and reason for IVF, and I would love to see any studies that say otherwise. Are those studies divvied up by diagnosis, maternal age, number of fetuses, etc? IVFers are at greater risk for twins, triplets, and even vanishing twins and triplets (which have been shown to have an effect on birth weight, etc.) Honestly, I know so many PAIFers who have never heard this kind of spiel and are simply treated as "normal" patients. The first thing my MW said to me was, "You're a normal, 29 year old pregnant woman now. There's no reason to believe that there's anything wrong."

Heck, even my RE told me that once I got pregnant with IVF I would be no higher risk than if I'd conceived naturally (I believe it was even a question and answer in the documents I had to sign). If my pregnancy were going to be treated as high-risk, I would honestly switch providers. And I completely know how you feel -- I want this pregnancy to be the opposite of an IVF cycle. And yet it's hard to trust one's body after it feels like your body "failed" you for so long. But I am trying to forgive and trust my body... and, just like we did while trying to get pregnant, I'm planning on giving my body every opportunity to do things naturally before taking the interventionist route. Just because you needed help getting pregnant doesn't mean that your body isn't set up to birth your baby beautifully on its own.

Also -- congratulations I'm pregnant after one failed IVF and one successful, and it's an amazing feeling.

drubie · June 2012

Like many of the other responses, I have felt, with all of the medical interventions we went through to get pregnant, that I wanted to have as natural as possible a birth experience. For me, it's about trusting my body again, and re-learning how to do that. I have an amazing doula, and my husband is incredibly supportive - both of which are incredibly important to me.

I have been told that IVF makes me slightly higher risk, but not high risk. As in, I should use an OB and have a hospital birth, as well as a level II ultrasound for my anatomy scan, but that's the extent of my additional monitoring for IVF. My OB wants to do a growth scan in another month or two, but that doesn't seem to have anything to do with IVF, and we also did ICSI.

caralck · June 2012

Congrats! I'm also pregnant after IVF with a singleton but never was I considered higher risk by my OB...or the RE. If I had 2 or more in there, then I could see needing more monitoring but with just one, I've been doing the same things as those pregnant the old fashioned way. Have you considered finding a midwife to do your delivery? Only reason I don't have one (I'm an FP doc) is because the hospital I want to deliver at only has one midwife group and they work with me. It was alittle too close for comfort since I don't care to work with people on a daily basis who have seen my crotch. Just a personal boundary thing I have. And the awesome midwife group I know of only delivers at the hospital I don't want to go to (baby factory with nurses who don't know what "normal" looks like)

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