Natural Childbirth

Sorry it has been so long since I wrote anything everyone! Life often gets busy as I am sure you all know!

Anyway, I've been wanting to put some stuff on here about natural childbirth, so here are some of my thoughts about it all!

I have labored and delivered both of my children without the use of any drugs (although I did have to take tylenol with Samuel because I had a fever:), and I loved my experience of natural childbirth. But before I get into it all, let me first say that I by no means look down on anyone who chooses to use drugs or pain relief. It is a choice we all have to make, and I have a good friend who loves having her babies with the help of an epideral, another friend who had her first naturally (with 44 hours of labor), and then had an epidural for her second. So, if you have had children with the help of modern medicine's pain relief, more power to ya. But I would like to write about some of the reasons why I think having a baby naturally is a great choice to make...and to share some of my experiences.

First of all, there is always an element of risk when it comes to having a baby...all sorts of things can happen during the labor and delivery. But I believe there is less of a risk when choosing to go through labor and delivery as naturally as possible. I really believe that our bodies are made to be able to handle this process without too much intervention. While I have had my children in the hospital, I am one of those people that most nurses don't like to work with, because I am basically trying to have a home birth in a hospital. I bring in my own doulas (which are kind of like midwives, except they don't deliver the baby), I am a bit resistant to a lot of the procedures they want to put me through (I hate laboring lying down, so I am kind of difficult to get good heart beat readings on the baby), I work pretty hard to convince them to not put an IV in me (or even a hep-lock for that matter, which is like a pre-IV). But my point is not to recommend being a difficult patient. My point is that I appreciate the safety and accommadations a hospital provides for having babies, but I really believe that we as women can pretty much undergo this process without much help from modern medicine.

Here's a good example of even the medical community starting to pick up on this. It used to be a common procedure for doctors to give women in labor an enema to clean them out so they didn't poop during labor. Finally they realized that most women's bodies do this naturally during early labor, and it wan't necessary to give these. They also realized that even if a woman poops during labor or even during the pushing stage, it isn't a big deal. Childbirth is messy, and pooping during it is the least of our worries!

So, back to why I promote natural childbirth... There is certainly the element of empowerment that comes from going through this process. It is an amazing thing to experience giving birth to your children, and I for one wouldn't really want to miss out on much of this. Our society runs from pain, but pain is not necessarily as bad of a thing as we've made it out to be. Especially this pain that means that something good is happening, a baby is coming, and your body is doing what it is supposed to be doing. With Samuel I had to have an episiotomy (where they cut you a little), because they needed to get him out very quickly (his heart rate had dropped significantly). Because of this, I missed the infamous "ring of fire." Not that I was complaining, but I appreciated experiencing this when I had Hope, since I missed out on it with my first labor. There is just something about experiencing the whole thing with your body fully feeling and experiencing every aspect of labor.

But I know that getting to fully experience all of the feelings and pain of childbirth is not a great reason for "going natural." I'm sure that wouldn't have been a convincing enough reason for me either. I think some of the clenchers for me were these facts...when you get an epidural, you can't walk, you have to get a catheter put in, you can't really feel the urge to push (and usually have to be coached through it a lot more), it can put your baby in danger, your chance for a c-section increases, and other risks that there is only a slight chance of happening. I hated the idea of not being able to get up and move around during labor, and of not being able to walk for a few hours after either. For some people, getting an epidural can speed up the labor, but I've also heard several horror stories of it slowing people's labor down, so then they will give you pectosin to speed it up, and then you can start to feel the pain again, so they up the medicine in the epidural, and there can be a vicious cycle created.

I don't want to get into all the risks involved or bad things that can happen if you have an epidural. That is something you can research on your own if you want. But for me, knowing that there were risks involved scared me away. But I have also known many women who've had great experiences in labor having epidurals. Some women choose to take advantage of some of the other pain reducing drugs available during childbirth. However, I've heard that these can be more dangerous to the baby because they go through your blood stream and go to the baby. On that note, most medicine does affect your baby in some way or another, even an epidural. It tends to make them come out a little less alert, and can interfere with their ability to nurse in those first few hours. During the first hour after childbirth is usually when the baby is the most alert and the most receptive to nursing. After that, they usually like to sleep for a few hours.

Okay, last point for now... I would definitely not consider myself a very tough person. Most people would say I have a very low pain tolerance in fact. When I stub my toe, it hurst like heck. But still, I have loved getting to go through the process of childbirth and be able to experience it all. There are so many natural things we can do to help with the pain, and going through the whole process of labor and delivery all culminates in the wonderful birth of your child. While I know this is something enjoyed so richly by women whether they are on any drugs or not, there is something amazing about undergoing something so intense and then experiencing that last push, just when you thought you couldn't do it anymore, when your baby comes out. It is a feeling of relief, joy, and a sense of overwhelming accomplishment unlike anything I've ever experienced before. To all of those women about to experience this for themselves: Happy Labor Day!