natural birth?

Question

i am currently eighteen weeks and around this time you are offered different birth methods. I personally want to go through natural birth in a hospital. For women who have gone through natural birth what was it like and what worked for you. How did you feel afterwards and for the women who choose the drugs...what made you choose them

Answer 1

I suggest you take Bradley Method Childbirth classes. They emphasize a natural with with your partner coaching you and no special breathing trchniques. Also you may want to get doula which is a woman who helps you during your labor and advocates for you. Also you may want to have your baby in a birthing center with a midwife instead of a regular hospital. Next best would be a hospital with a birthing center and pick a doctor who is pro natural child birth. A lot of doctors and hospitals are not as medicated births with inter ventions mean more money for them. You should read the book " the Thinking Woman's guide to a better Birth" which talks about this in depth.
Every woman is different but for me childbirth was not as painful as i though it would be. ( breaking my arm in a car was much more painful than this!) In fact for a while I want quite sure i was in labor ! It just felt like bad period cramps that would come and go and gradually got more intense and closer apart until ifelt like I had to push. Pushing actually felt good! I did not rush to the hospital when i first felt the contactions but waited and did mostof my labor at home where i was comfortable. We went to the hospital when the contractions were 3 minutes apart. My doula made me walk in to the hospital which helped the baby move down and I had my baby as soon as I got in the delivery room! She just slid out! I had no nor di my baby - we were both alert and happy! The hospital staff seemed upset that I didnt come to them sooner and that I brought my doula and they did not get to do any interventions. In fact one nurse even said" you made sure we couldn't stick you with any needles didn't you!"
Childbirth is not an illness and does not have to be an ordeal but should be a joyous natural experience. Just educate yourself and stay in tune with your body. You can do it!

Answer 2

I have 3 children. 2 hospital with drugs and 1 natural. If I had any of them to do over again, I'd have a natural birth in the hospital with all of them. I had always wanted to try a natural birth, but my husband just laughed at me. It finally happened - unplanned! I don't recommend the unplanned. :-)

The first 2 were hospital births with epidurals. Long story short, fear with the first two, which were preemies, made me choose the epidural. Looking back, being confined to the bed was awful. I think that was worse than the contractions. Hindsight - for me laying on my back or side in a hospital bed made it a lot worse.

The third was just over the hump from being a preemie (36 weeks to the day) and an emergency home birth. No drugs, no doctors, just me, my husband and our neighbor (who thankfully was an EMT). He was a 9lb baby.

I'm going to be perfectly honest. It did hurt, but it wasn't this horrible pain that I expected and had always heard about. It certainly wasn't more than I could handle. I've had migraines that hurt worse. I wasn't screaming and yelling, it was more like wimpering.

I had some contractions I couldn't walk through, but I walked through most of the labor (granted I was only in labor for 45 minutes - we live an hour from the hospital). It was the eaisest birth I had.

My son was born around 4:30 am. By 6 we were at the hospital, I'd had a shower, my hair blown dry, a little make-up and jammies on and was nusing the baby and begging my OB for a latte and some toast. I felt great! I felt human! I was a little sore, but nothing a little motrin didn't fix.

I was groggy and just felt yucky and tired after the first two births for a few days.

With the home birth, I was pretty much on my own. My husband was in a panic. Then he and the neighbor were so focused on getting what the baby needed together, they sort of forgot about me. :-) I remembered the breathing from the class I took with the first baby and I walked as much as I could.

Good luck! I hope this helps you! Congratulations on the baby! :-)

Answer 3

I chose the drugs because I was so tired and my husband was playing computer games or sleeping and I just wanted some sleep too. But, looking back I should have just done it the natural way. I made it to 7 cm with no drugs. And, once you have the drugs they will hook an IV in you and use a cathetar. The cathetar makes going to the bathroom afterwards even harder. And, because I had the IV my doc had a free card to give me pitocin - avoid that at all costs!

It intensifed the labor so much he nearly missed the birth. And, it made my recovery harder.

This time I'm having a doula help me make it through :))

PS: I'm one of the small percentage that the epidural stops working for. So, I felt everything at the end :(

Also, try looking for natural child birthing classes at your local hospital. Start looking and sign up now (you can wait six months to actually attend as most are at least 6+ months when they attend) the classes fill up early.

Answer 4

I wanted a natural labor but after 30 hours of full labor my doctor and my husband convinced me to have drugs because I hadn't slept in 40 hrs. I don't necessarily regret getting the epidural but I will try with my next ones to have them naturally. You know your pain tolerance better than everyone else. Go with what you think, you can always opt for an epidural or whatever if you can't handle it later. (there is a point when they can no longer give it to you though so make sure you continue to communicate with your doctor or nurses as you progress)
P.S. I'm not going to describe my pain because it was atypical considering I had kidney stones and back labor...but I made it 30 hours with out the drugs (40 hrs of active labor total) I also had them turn off the epidural before I started pushing so I could feel the contractions and know when to push

Answer 5

I went through two deliveries with natural birth. The first delivery it was too late when I got to the hospital to receive pain medication and honestly I didn't have strong contractions like the horror stories of pure pain I had heard. I knew it was time to go to the hospital because my sister was timing my contractions not by the pain. I heard my water bag pop and sound like a balloon while I was using the bathroom. (It was really loud..I jumped and said what was that? My sister responded it's your water bag) I stood up all the way in the ambulance because the E.M.T. workers didn't want me to sit on the baby (I was already dilated to 8 ) I felt pain with every bump they hit. Soon as I got there it was time to push the baby out. I did receive an episitotomy which made the delivery easier. It was more so fear of the unknown than actual pain. As soon as the baby's head and shoulders come out it's easy sailing...and such a relief. The pain wasn't that bad.

Now with my second natural birth I felt much more intense contractions and pain. I didn't receive an episiotomy and I felt the difference of the pressure of my child's head coming out. Yes I did holler...it was painful.

With my third child I just chose not to experience any pain....(Although they made me wait until they acutally gave me the medicine...) I had already made up my mind. The contractions were more intense than the other two pregnancies. My children were at the hospital with me. And I know that every pregnancy is different.

I chose the drugs because I am older and I had my other children at the age of 21 and 27. With my last pregnancy I was humongous and a lot of heartburn almost daily, and my baby moved excessively. It was very uncomfortable...and sometimes I had to sleep sitting up in order for my food not to come up. (Acid Reflux)

My last child I delivered when I was 33-my baby girl.

Answer 6

You have a lot of time left to decide. Keep an open mind. Don't go in saying "I won't have ANY drugs." Its not a failure to use the meds they offer. You'll know when you get there. Sometimes you need the meds just to get some rest. Exhaustion can set in and then you may end up sectioned.

Personally, I won't be using an epidural again. I will try hypnosis and other relaxation techniques. My epidural was a wet tap (rare) and was the worst thing ever experienced. It basically ruined my birthing experience. Educate yourself and make the best choices for yourself.

Answer 7

With my 1st, You can say I had a pretty natural birth.Not by choice. I was adamant that I was going to recieve drugs, any kind as long as I didn't feel the labor pains. I recieved my epidural at 5cm. dilation, it only worked for like an hour. So the last 4hrs. of labor was without anything. I felt the whole birth. As far as labor was concerned,what got me through contractions, was putting my head back, visualizing a beautiful calm place that I knew I could just lose myself in, (a sunset walk on the beach, cool wind blowing your hair......., out in an open field by a small winding babbling brook, under a swooping weeping willow, lying on blanket, reading your fave. book, with the warm sun hitting your face....) The imagery really helped me not to focus as much on the pain. When the head emerges, the call it "the ring of fire".... and they are NOT kidding, fortunately, this part usually doesn't last that long.My second one was born by emergency c-section 6.5wks early breeched. I was numb through the whole thing.

Answer 8

I started with natural but after the contractions reached their peak, the doctor recommended an epideral. I am currently pregnant again and my doc already has it noted i want drugs.

The pain is just too much, and doctors have told me i have a high tolerance for pain, but i could not go through with it. My son came out perfect, the drugs did not effect anything, it actually made the stress levels a lot less and the delivery was a breeze!!

If you want i would start out with nothing to see if you can handle it, but you have to be careful doing that cuz sometimes they don't have time to give you any drugs and even if you change you're mind during contractions, you may be too close to delivery for them to give them to you.

Good Luck, but i would say if you think you can handle it, try it!

Answer 9

Well, I had to have a c-section because my blood pressure was high, so I was on just about all the medicines so I didn't feel anything at all, not even a contraction. But I am on my 2nd pregnancy, and I'm 7months, but I want to do natural birth, but I still want to have a epidural.

Answer 10

I tried to go natural but the pitocin did me in, I got an epidural. Next time I plan a home birth, obviously without drugs.