I'm not sure why, but I knew right away that I wanted a natural birth. For anyone who doesn't know what this means, I wanted to give birth vaginally without any pain medication or unnecessary interventions. Of course, I was open to anything should a medical need have arisen, but I had faith that this natural process would go relatively smoothly. I chose to work with midwives instead of OBGYNs because they are more experienced with natural birth and supportive of it. Doctors, bless them, don't really know what to make of natural birth. They are trained to do things, when the vast majority of births will happen all on their own and all the doctor is needed for is to catch the baby. Midwives know they just need to quietly monitor from afar until push time, then they help you find the most productive position.
I found out that everyone had an opinion about my decision for my birth experience. My best friend, my sister-in-law, and most notably, my dad, who gave this post its title. I was particularly livid about that, because I feel pretty strongly that men are entitled to exactly no opinion about anything related to childbirth. The only man who I felt had any sort of say was Dustin, since he had to step up and coach me through the process, but he was supportive of whatever I wanted to do (as you might expect anyone to be, since you're the one actually giving birth). To answer the title question, I didn't "want to be in pain." I just felt that I could manage the pain without drugs. And I'm very glad I learned the wonderful techniques I did in my Bradley Method class, because I also learned that epidurals don't always work. Here are some interesting facts:
- Epidurals involve a very large needle being placed in your back. Because of this, once you receive the epidural you are confined to the bed. This can impede the natural progress of your labor, because changing positions frequently is what keeps things moving along. If I had gotten the epidural, I wouldn't have been able to labor in the hot bath, which worked wonders for my tense muscles and definitely eased the pain of the contractions. I wouldn't have been able to labor on the birthing ball at the foot of the bed with Dustin applying counter pressure. I wouldn't have been able to push in the various positions I tried such as on all fours and on a squatting bar. I would have been stuck propped up in bed with no ability to listen to my body's cues.
-Epidurals can actually slow down contractions or cause too much numbness in your lower body to push effectively. This can lead to additional interventions such as forceps or even a C-section. If you choose to go the C-section route to begin with, obviously this has no effect on you. But if you were hoping to give birth vaginally now or in the future, this is quite the curveball.
-Epidurals don't always work! Many women report feeling no relief from contraction pain after receiving their epidural. So even if you go into your birth planning to get one, it's a good idea to learn some natural pain management techniques to fall back on in case this happens to you.
-Epidurals do have a short term effect on baby. For one thing, they can cause the mother's blood pressure to drop suddenly, which causes inadequate oxygen flow to baby and requires additional treatments. Additionally, they can impede baby's ability to successfully breastfeed early on, which can quickly become a long term problem.
As my sister-in-law warned me, there was no trophy or medal waiting for me after successfully giving birth naturally. But I can honestly say that there could be no prize greater than the immense personal satisfaction I felt. I am so proud of myself and can't wait to do it again with future children!
I found out that everyone had an opinion about my decision for my birth experience. My best friend, my sister-in-law, and most notably, my dad, who gave this post its title. I was particularly livid about that, because I feel pretty strongly that men are entitled to exactly no opinion about anything related to childbirth. The only man who I felt had any sort of say was Dustin, since he had to step up and coach me through the process, but he was supportive of whatever I wanted to do (as you might expect anyone to be, since you're the one actually giving birth). To answer the title question, I didn't "want to be in pain." I just felt that I could manage the pain without drugs. And I'm very glad I learned the wonderful techniques I did in my Bradley Method class, because I also learned that epidurals don't always work. Here are some interesting facts:
- Epidurals involve a very large needle being placed in your back. Because of this, once you receive the epidural you are confined to the bed. This can impede the natural progress of your labor, because changing positions frequently is what keeps things moving along. If I had gotten the epidural, I wouldn't have been able to labor in the hot bath, which worked wonders for my tense muscles and definitely eased the pain of the contractions. I wouldn't have been able to labor on the birthing ball at the foot of the bed with Dustin applying counter pressure. I wouldn't have been able to push in the various positions I tried such as on all fours and on a squatting bar. I would have been stuck propped up in bed with no ability to listen to my body's cues.
-Epidurals can actually slow down contractions or cause too much numbness in your lower body to push effectively. This can lead to additional interventions such as forceps or even a C-section. If you choose to go the C-section route to begin with, obviously this has no effect on you. But if you were hoping to give birth vaginally now or in the future, this is quite the curveball.
-Epidurals don't always work! Many women report feeling no relief from contraction pain after receiving their epidural. So even if you go into your birth planning to get one, it's a good idea to learn some natural pain management techniques to fall back on in case this happens to you.
-Epidurals do have a short term effect on baby. For one thing, they can cause the mother's blood pressure to drop suddenly, which causes inadequate oxygen flow to baby and requires additional treatments. Additionally, they can impede baby's ability to successfully breastfeed early on, which can quickly become a long term problem.
As my sister-in-law warned me, there was no trophy or medal waiting for me after successfully giving birth naturally. But I can honestly say that there could be no prize greater than the immense personal satisfaction I felt. I am so proud of myself and can't wait to do it again with future children!
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