Natural Childbirth. Did you? Would you again?

Congrats on your Baby ! I had hoped for a natural birth, but had to have a C-section, same thing with my sister. They give an epidural, which does give you about 24 hrs. before the pain hits which is nice so you can bond with your baby and get some rest before the healing pains kick in. I have heard that whether you go natural or C-section the healing hurts if they have to make an incision. If you do have to have a C-section make sure your doc is smart about where the scar ends up if that matters to you, mine is below the bikini line so you can't see it unless your naked.

Good Luck ! Let us know when the Baby arrives !

a reply to: Atsbhct

I think I was just so tired. I don't even remember the pain relief for the stitches, the doc said they were layered, about 30 stitches. He must have given me a localized needle for them.

As far as pain tolerance, anytime I've hurt myself bad, I don't feel it for a few hours. I drove myself to emergency once with no pain after falling on my face and knocking out a tooth and breaking a cheekbone. I woke up in the middle of the night with massive pain. I hurt in places I didn't know that I landed on.

Maybe I just go into shock easy 🤔

I had an epidural with mine and LOVED it. Wide awake and alert, but no pain. Pushing was a little challenging, because I had to have a total block. I had no side effects afterwards, but my step daughter had a horrible headache for 3 days after hers. Her doctor told her that was a side effect of the epidural that some women had. She decided to have an epidural for her second baby, and had no headaches that time.

a reply to: Atsbhct

If you did go the natural route, would you do it again? Why or why not? What influenced your decision? Were there other techniques you employed as a pain management strategy? Did you just embrace it?

Yes I went natural, and I would again. I had birth plan and explicit instructions to nurses and my doctor that I wanted no medicine. I decided that I didn't want any meds due to the effects it has on the baby.

DO NOT LET the med staff do ANYTHING outside of your birth plan without your permission. Because they will.

My friend let me tell you, I had to fight the nurses LITERALLY to stop them from giving me pain meds. I have the scar on my hand where they tried to butterfly me to do an IV. Now, here's the long story condensed:
As soon as my labor started my contractions were 5-6 mins apart, no breaks and slow dilation. I went home, sat in my bathtub and just kept "basting" my belly with warm water as I breathed through the pain. After about 14 hours of this, I go back to the hospital. Ive dilated more about 7cm. My water had not broken, I had a dry birth. I was truly in a space I'd never been in spiritually and mentally as I only breathed and never screamed. My rule was DO NOT TOUCH me, that went for my family too. They kept saying my silence was a sign of stress and I needed the meds. I promise that was the most absurd thing Id heard!! I hear them all around me scrambling and whispering and one evil winch of a nurse decided to start touching me trying to comfort me, I advise her I'm good, please stop touching me. She continues like I didn't say that. She then charges this dumb campaign against my choice of natural birth and demands I get the IV to start the pain meds. I am now cussing profusely. More nurses come in trying to back her up, two of them are double teaming me and attempting to hold my arm down to butterfly the IV. Then my mother begins running defense to keep them off of me. My doctor was currently at a different hospital doing surgery So I had no support from med staff. Now its action time and little miss Sarah was on her way into the world, I felt the water break and her coming through. She decides to breath while in the canal on her way out and inhales all amniotic fluid into her lungs. She came here blue and in critical condition. But after about 45 secs, you hear this perfect little being fighting to breathe and clearing her lungs.

Now if I had the epidural my Sarah would probably not be here today because she would have been to sedate to fight for breath. She had to stay in the NICU for 10 days to make sure she got no infection in her lungs, and she did not. My doctor said I made the right choices from start to finish.

OH forgot this part, labor total of 21 hrs. No episiotomy (no time) and about 37 stitches internally and externally.

Good luck and may God bless you and your perfect little miracle!

Well, since your asking.

Both were natural, First son with an epi, the second nothing, he came too quick.

If I had to do it all over again?

C section. All the way.

a reply to: Atsbhct

My wife used that epidural for the first two, the third one ran it ran out before breach and the entire wing was overloaded with women in labor so she felt every last bit of it, with the screams that followed. She insisted it ot happen again on the fourth one, and got lucky.

She intends to get the epidural again for this fifth child which is due in like a week. All children delivered through the natural process, no C-section.

Praying for this birth to be as smooth as the rest, relatively speaking of course. Everything seems good though, no signs of the need for one.

If you have not given birth before and choose to opt out of the epidural, chances are you will regret it and may change your mind during labor. She tells me its, well it is not like soaking in a hot bath if you get what I am saying.

I was present for all except the second, he just slid out while I was grabbing a meal downstairs.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I did on my third but the way had been paved by two before him. I have very easy births and didn't experience much pain at all. Just a nagging backache. Once I got to transition it went very fast. Thirty minutes.

I will say this.
Educate yourself to know what to expect and keep relaxed. Tension makes it hurt more and last longer.

My first was born while I was knocked out completely. I had little pain and told the doctor to hold off but that was back in the seventies when they used scopolimine to knock you out.
They didn't give me a choice. They also didn't offer support for breast feeding then either.

The second I went drug free but when he crowned the cord was around his neck and they put me under so I wouldn't push.
I felt cheated again.
My last was all natural and went without a hitch. I still got a backache but I walked it off. I walked right up until he was fully engaged. Then pop goes the baby.

Good luck and congratulations!

a reply to: Atsbhct

PS Labor times was eight with the first and two with the second. The last one was born within 45 minutes of my arrival at the hospital.

It sounds like you will have an easy time. My mother's babies fell out too. Both my sister's also had very easy births. I did. So I know it gets passed down.

a reply to: intrptr

Yeah my first obgyn told me I had breeder hips. I kicked him in the stomach. Completely by accident..

My wife tried to go natural, but we had an unusually long labor and she wound up getting an epidural.

a reply to: Atsbhct

my advise, if you are healthy and able, go natural and use self-hypnosis/meditation for pain. I went this route for my FIFTH birth and I so regret not using these techniques for all my others. I was able to keep my body so relaxed during the contractions that the nurse went and told my doctor that my labor had stalled because she couldn't read the contractions on the eeg, anymore. He ordered her to give me a pic drip to jumpstart my contractions to which I refused, telling him he was wrong. He actually stood there and argued with me about it during my labor, telling me I was threatening my child but I just got back into my concentration. He told the nurse to call him when I was crowning and he left. She proceeded to do an ultrasound on me to check the baby which took no longer than 10 minutes. When she finished, she checked my dilation and said, "Oh my God, you were right, you're crowning this baby is coming right now!" She ran to get the doctor. He barely had enough time to scrub up and run to the bottom of my bed to catch the baby. One of the nurses said quietly, "Mom knows best...". It got very quiet in the room and he exited as quickly as he could

a reply to: Atsbhct

Just Google "hypnobirth" and all kinds of information will come up. What I did was research several self-guided hypnosis/meditation tracks from Itunes or Amazon to my ipod and listened to them every night for about 5 months before I gave birth. The sooner you start, the better but you'll need to do it nearly daily for it to be effective. I also downloaded soothing sounds like thunderstorms, Om chanting, ect...whatever kept me relaxed. Then I wore my headphones & listened throughout my labor. Closing my eyes and tuning out the world. The trick is when you feel a contraction coming on, work to relax every muscle in your body. Slow down your breathing. Instinctively, when we feel pain coming on, our initial reaction is fear and we tense up, speeding up our heartrate and breathing which intensifies it. But if you learn to go the opposite way and relax, breath slow and deep and just let your body take care of it's natural process...the whole experience is so much better. And what really makes it great is you feel so powerful and so in control of your own body instead of letting others intervene. It's empowering. I wish I would have known to use meditation for all my births, those were negative experiences for me because of the control that other people had over me. One more tip, if you hold a comb in one of your hands and gently squeeze it during a contraction, it will take the edge off. That's acupressure. Good luck!

a reply to: Atsbhct

My first birth (39 yrs ago) was in a hospital, with the typical blocks and pain stuff. The next 3 births were at home without any medications. My last birth was in a hot tub.

IMO its much better to be alert and awake when that baby delivers. I was so out of it with the first birth that I barely remember the 2 huge nurses that pushed her out. Miserable. They even used a cathater and wouldnt let me walk anywhere. I know it isnt so bad today. But I was so miserable, that I had the others at home with a midwife.

The hot tub was absolutely the easiest. (easy as childbirth goes, lol) She weighed 9.2.

From an old mom with grandkids. It hurts like a *&*%$ but dont miss any of it drugged out. And really I am sure some of that stuff gets in your babies milk supply.

I do not encourage anyone to have their first baby at home. Make sure all the plumbing works with the first baby have it in the hospital cause anything can happen.

Congratulations mom!!

"Birth plan". LOL! BTDT. Didn't work.

The baby is in charge. At least both of mine were. Hell, they still might be. LOL!

I intended to go natural but with #1 I had precipitous labor after contractions for 12 hours (they said I wasn't having them, wtfever) and the ob/gyn saying I wasn't dilated and wouldn't be having a baby anytime soon. Until I did. FAST. And with #2 it was placenta previa and 2 months in the hospital, ending in a c section.

Just relax, try to go with the flow. Be spiritually and physically at peace for your baby. Listen to your heart and your body and try to keep the stress to a minimum. Don't over-manage. Don't over-worry.

I wish you all the best and great joy. Keep us posted. (((HUG)))

I just want to add, that the pit drip will bring on your labor hard and fast, and makes it almost impossible to stay on top of the contractions. Ive also read that there are more c sections when a pit is used. So, even if the Dr is in a hurry, dont let him give you a drip unless you really really need it.

The Pitocin Drip is a synthetic form of Oxytocin. I was given the pit with the first delivery. When given the synthetic Pitocin the body often has a hard time getting the natural oxytocin to get going again when the next baby is due. So, my next baby was 3 weeks late. I had to drink castor oil and orange juice to get the labor going. It was vomiting up the castor that actually got my labor going.

JFYI super hot boiling towels wrapped around your belly during a contraction is the best relief by far. Midwifes really do boil towels.

Forgot to say...tried to go natural for the first but, like Kanga, was too tired and begged for drugs. Used a midwife for actual labor then and loved it. She was amazing.

Anyone who willingly opts for a c section for scheduling purposes is KERAZY and naive.

And just to repeat Augustus - drugs.

a reply to: Atsbhct

I wanted to go completely natural and that was the plan, but it didn't work out that way.

By the time I had hit full blown labour (non-stop contractions) I was so physically exhausted that my obgyn strongly suggested that I get the epidural for the last couple of hours so that I could build up my strength to do the all-important pushing at the end.

For me, getting an epi was an absolute godsend... it reduced the contraction pain enough in my lower body that I was able to fall sleep for an hour and when I woke up (the nurses had to actually wake me up because I was so tired), I was fully dialated and it was time to start pushing.

That silly little one hour catnap gave me fricken superman powers and I felt like I could've pushed out a Mac truck with both hands tied behind my back.

Despite the advice given by all of us, I'm sure you already have a good feeling about what you want to do. Nobody can prepare you because a woman's birth experience is unique to her and her circumstances. Even different doctors will make different decisions.
Where I gave birth to my children, epidurals were not an option for a natural birth. Only IV pain killers.
I have 9 children, so I'm old hat to this. 8 delivered naturally, and the last one I needed IV to progress the labor and when asked if I wanted pain meds..I took them. Why? Because I could, and I figured at that point I had nothing left to prove to anyone as to how strong a woman I was. I did it 8 times before...now I just want an easy ride. Let me tell you...I felt nothing, and it was bliss.
Hoping you have a speedy delivery, and that all goes well.