Natural Childbirth VS Epidural/Medication/Interventions

[VivaciousJewelz]

Okay, so DH and I are going back and forth with the dicussion of "natural childbirth" versus epidural/medications. My personal opinion is that DH does not get a firm say in this as he will never experience it, but his opinion matters to me, plus I've been reading how a natural childbirth is most conducive to breastfeeding, etc.

So, a quick poll on who had a natural childbirth or who had medications and what would you all recommend?

I am pretty much of the view that I might want to see if I can go natural, but I am reserving the right to demand an epidural at any time, lol.

[lyc]

My first time, I did it with epidural, and medications. I did not have a good experience. My second time, I did it the natural way. No epidural, no IV, but I did hire a doula. I'm done with two, but if I were to do it again, I'll do it the natural way!

[carisal]

oh I REALLY wanted to do without the epidural. I was really worried about that needle. I tried my best to go without any pain meds. but, I was induced - and I hear that causes the pain to be way worse than going into labor naturally. - I've never done it naturally so I have no say on that, but I know my pain was WAY up there... my water broke and didnt go into labor, contractions at all... I never even had Braxton hicks. 12 hours after my water broke I wasnt dilated or effaced at all and so they put me on the pitocin drip (I dont know why they didnt give me the cervidel (sp?) gel) anyways I made it to 5 cm before the pain got too bad for me to take anymore, all I could think was OMG I'm only halfway there, I need something for the pain. so I asked for the shot which I can not remember the name of right now.... but it didnt do anything as far as the pain, it made me loopy though.(yeah I think its a narcotic) So I waited an hour - (maybe 45 minutes) - to make sure it wasnt going to help the pain, then gave up and asked for the epidural.

I will definitely go straight for the epidural this time. Unless I go into labor naturally - then I'll see how it goes. but if it gets bad definitely the epidural!! If I'm induced again I'm getting the epidural as soon as possible LOL


ETA~~ remembered the name of that shot - Stadol.
stay away from it. no good!!!

[daisydog215]

I was induced twice. Had epidurals twice. Those drugs were my best friends.

[mzbeers]

Natural childbirth with my DD1 went much better than anticipated. I stayed at home for much of my labor, it went fairly well, I did a lot of walking, and had some snacks (yogurt, crackers etc...). By the time I reached the hospital I was at a 5, and about 4 hours later I had my DD1. The nurse kept asking me if I wanted the epidural, but I kept telling her I didn't need it. Everyone was shocked, even my doctor. You can always opt for meds if you think you can't handle it, but I would recommend to everyone to try it first without anything. It's much better for Mom, and baby.

[CocoB]

I was scared to death about labor. I planned to have an epidural b/c I have zero pain tolerance and I figured- why should I be in pain????? I was seeing midwives and although they recommend natural they are totally willing to help you have the kind of labor you want. I took a prenatal class associated with the midwifery practice that was very focused on waterbirth. I thought they were all crazies and was the onlyone in class planning to get an epidural. The more I learned about waterbirth, the more I was intrigued and eventually decided that's what I wanted to do. I had the most wonderful labor process and birth because of my midwife and my waterbirth. Of course, the pain is awful, terrible, worst of your life but the water is so soothing. And it's so nice to deliver your baby and bond and then get up and walk around. The next morning (I delivered at 8pm) I got out of bed like it was any other day- no tingling or residual numbness from an epidural.

I think it's great you're going in with an open mind. If your hospital offers a tub/waterbirth experience- trust me and try it. You will be absolutely amazed at how the water makes labor much more tolerable. At one point when I was in the water, my midwife wanted to see how dilated I was so I had to get out of the tub and into bed- OMG, once I got out of that tub, the pain was so intense, I needed to get back in!!!!

Good luck!

[mrsjschultz]

I went as far as I could without meds and caved at 8cm. Now I'm wishing I wouldn't have caved as it ended in a c/s (after 20 hours of labor and 3 hours pushing).

Full birth story here (scroll down to the bottom) -

mrsjschultz4 - MrsPreKÂ*

[nurseannette]

I have had 4 labors, 3 were natural , the last one I had an epidural
and have regretted it ever since.

[faeryedark]

Well, my first ws an emergency C-section that they knocked me out for. I liked it that way to be honest, wake -up and, here's your baby! I healed really fast from that too.
I wanted my second one to be a C-section too, but they pushed for me to try vaginally, yeah that worked, NOT! Well, it did sorta tho' they had to break DS2's collarbone to get him out, and that was only after they gave me an epidural that has messed up my back.

ETA: that the Vaginal birth (for me) took longer to heal from. I was so sore but with the C-section, I was up the next day and walking around fine.

[greenrays]

I had pitocin to help me dilate(didn't work well) and an epi---I was ALL bout the epi!!!!!!

I didn't dilate enough, pushed for 2hrs and nothing happened. After 23 hrs labor we did a csection.

I was in shock and crying b/c I was so "planned" in how it would go and a csection WAS NOT part of it. It was never even a thought. Just wanted to throw that in there b/c really you never ever know what will happen with your birth and just try to keep an open mind while you are in there.

that being said, I was knocked out after they pulled him out b/c of breathing issues and they couldn't get me to stop throwing up. I woke up 6 hrs later and still had no issues breast feeding. I exclusively nursed him for 13 months so I'm not really sure how the 2 are correlated....

good luck in any decisions that you make!!!