So what did I do? Had all 3 babies the natural way. Though I would have accepted laughing gas if that had been an option.

I’m not sure about my great-grandmother (From all accounts, she may have had some moonshine aiding her ), but I agree 100%! I can do this (repeat, repeat, repeat .

(And how come I think my ears should have been burning last Saturday during your Raw Melissa class? Sorry I missed it, hope to catch you in person again soon!).

I don’t know if you knew this, but I’m also a doula. I’ve attended nearly two hundred births and am also one of two doula trainers in Utah. I really appreciate your post. I see so many posts that are not balanced or based on research regarding epidurals. The majority of women I work with choose to give birth without medication, although I always have a handful of women who choose to give birth with an epidural. The bottom line is that it is almost always safer to give birth without medication, but every woman should have the right to choose how she gives birth, where she gives birth and with whom she gives birth. The clients that birth with me that choose to have epidurals are very well educated on the risks associated with an epidural. They generally hire me as already well-educated women and the journey of giving birth is a woman’s right to experience in whatever way she deems best for her life and I am not here to choose her life path, but to SUPPORT her.

One point I’d like to make, however, is that I hear a lot of stories from women who say that medical interventions like continuous electronic fetal monitor (EFM) saved their and their baby’s life. I just want to make the point that this is true in only a tiny fraction of cases (for example in the case of a long drawn out prodromal labor when rest is the number one priority in a safe birth). Most of the other problems we may encounter in birth are either improved by having all one’s physiological faculties, ie., freedom of movement, freedom to eat and drink, spontaneous pushing, etc., or exacerbated by things like continuous EFM (as opposed to intermittent monitoring), epidural, pitocin, confinement to the bed, etc. Many of the things the women describe above are actually iatrogenic problems, that is, “doctor caused.” For example, let’s say you started out with a posterior baby and your labor stalled. An epidural and pitocin will only cause your baby to become more stuck and will give it less ability to turn to an optimal position. Then comes the cesarean for lack of progress. So, my desire for women to do their best to have a normal birth is not because I like to see women in pain, but because I like to see women and babies in HEALTH and a normal physiological birth is the best way to insure this.

That said, many women are deathly afraid of giving birth without an epidural. Some things that help are to get educated about the true processes of labor and birth and why we have pain. Choose a care provider that will support your body in giving birth, not one who will manage your birth according to their professional or personal schedule. Remember that if your body can create the pain of labor and birth, it means you’re healthy and that you also have the ability to manage it. Consider getting a doula. Doulas know all the physiological positions and tricks that make labor and birth easier. If you still choose an epidural, there are ways to make it a safer choice: Wait as long as possible to get it. Move around as much as you can before you get it. Request a light epidural (you can always turn it up). Ask that it be turned off when you’re ready to push (the more you feel, the faster and more effectively you will push your baby out).

I hope this helps some of your readers! I’m proud of you and the choices you’re making. Remember that you can do whatever you choose. Your great grandmother and her mother and her mother and her mother all had successful unmedicated births, otherwise YOU wouldn’t be here! Cheers!

But I believe women have the right to choose their mode of delivery as we are all so different.

After reading the comments below, I’ll add that, although before I had my first I’d thought I would want to try squatting or some other position for delivery, it’s never worked well for me. I prefer to semi-recline and then at the end the midwives have me pull up my knees and my husband and mom help support my legs. My third baby (the one with the big shoulders) was posterior (that’s probably another factor in why I remember her birth as being so painful) and we did get her turned by my getting on all fours for ten contractions. That was ALL I could stand to do; I just couldn’t manage the pain as well in that position.

My second was also posterior but a few minutes on my side turned him.

For me the most comfortable was probably on my back or sitting. But then again, I didn’t ever labor long ever and never pushed more than a couple times after my first. Maybe that is why I have such bad memories about being on all fours, because it was so much longer than all my other pushing experiences?

Most of my waters were intact until the head was actually into the birth canal and the sack was coming out with the baby. (At least that is how I remember it- I’ll be the first to admit my memories of birth are a little distorted from the intensity of it all). Only one was broken to make labor go faster and I was already dilated to 9.5 and was feeling the urge to push, but the baby wasn’t entering the canal yet.

I’ve heard that episiotomy statistic, too, I think from the doctor explaining why he was going to let it tear instead of cutting. Also that a tear will heal better than a cut and so the chances of tearing again are less?

I did, however have to be cut open before I got married. I had an microperforate hymen (I think that was it). I wonder if I just tend to make really strong, not easily broken woman parts?

It is hard for me to adjust my experiences because I have a pretty high pain tolerance and was able to focus the pain into one spot on the ceiling during contractions. It was just natural to me and I have no idea how it is for someone without that natural inclination.

Was there a reason (besides hurrying labor) to break the waters at all? From what I have read, it seems like keeping the waters intact for as long as possible is nice for the baby (and mom) because it cushions things. ? (Susan came almost 3 weeks early when my water broke at home, so obviously I know it’s not always possible, even if it is? desirable, to keep them intact.)

Also from what I have read, episiotomy usually *increases* the chance of a 3rd or 4th degree tear — the statistic I think was by 9 times, but I need to look that up again. I tore with my first (just 28 stitches), but much more painful and longer to heal was the swelling and ground-meat feeling from the 2 hours of lithotomy pushing of a 9lb+ baby. That was the single most shocking thing to me about that birth. I had NO IDEA my lady parts could look/feel like THAT.

But I love this post. You hit near my exact feelings on the matter. I loved giving birth naturally. It was a rush. But then again I loved my one epidural- for me it was literally a magic pill (no pain and no side effects).

A few points about my experience:

I did labor and push (for hours) on all fours. There is no one in the world who can convince me that is a more natural, easier way to go.

I requested a catheter for my last half of children after I found out it was not NORMAL to pee all over your doctor in the middle of pushing. It (the catheter) didn’t bother me at all. I always thought the pee was my water breaking, but it wasn’t. My water never broke without the crochet hook until #6, when it broke at home and I barely made it into the hospital (so you could say I birthed most of him standing up- also not so comfortable).

I think I was profoundly lucky with my oldest. Despite her posterior position which she kept returning to, even after turning her during contractions, I was birthed completely natural (but on my hands and knees). Also, the doctor allowed me to tear (deeply) instead of episiotomy and I never tore or anything with any of the other 5 children. Lastly, I had decided to try natural unless I needed otherwise and I didn’t and found the natural labor expereince profound.

Yes, a catheter is almost always required with an epidural, and besides the possible complication you list, each incision/insertion point like that is a possible entry point for infections like MRSA. So yeah, not a happy thing.

If you can do it, more power to ya!

On the monitoring, I’ll have intermittent monitoring by Doppler, which will pick up problems like you describe w/ Hazel, and if something like that is noticed, then of course continual EFM would be instituted and I would be fine with that.

It’s interesting that the epidural was able to help your blood pressure (and labor while in such a dangerous condition), but that it probably also contributed to (or didn’t help, anyway) the baby’s heart rate. And it’s good that even with an epidural you were able to get into a different position. My sister had a similar thing (not the eclampsia, but erratic fetal heartbeat after an epidural and pitocin), and the nurses were able to get her into a hands-and-feet position, which is also better for baby’s heart. With my epidurals, there is NO WAY I could’ve gotten off my back. I was soooooo numb.

Also lucky is that you were able to avoid, with the nurse’s vigilant care, having a c-section — my sister ended up having one (and then a VBAC and then a c-section bec. she also had a grapefruit-sized cyst during her 3rd pregnancy). Really, I think you owe that nurse a big sloppy kiss (or some chocolates!), because I think many nurses/doctors wouldn’t even have known how to help you labor vaginally in that situation (because so often they wouldn’t let that progress but cut directly to c-section so they just wouldn’t have the experience), and so many also would go directly/immediately to c-section for legal fear, rather than working with you and doing what turned out to be best for you and Hazel.

(I hope my interpretation is okay here. I know I don’t know all the facts, but it sounds like everything went as well — actually better — than could be expected, and I honestly think at least part of that was your own experience of having the first three “naturally.”)

Finally (sorry, this is getting long) — one of the reasons we induced my third was bec. my first was 9 lb 3 oz (w/ the painful pushing), and my second was 7 lb 13 oz at almost 3 weeks early (we had an induction scheduled for her but my water broke and out she came). So we were sure my third would be huge too, but she wasn’t (7’5). I know usually babies get bigger and bigger, but I’m hoping (for obvious reasons) that this one follows her/his third big sister’s example.

But to answer your question , I haven’t seen BBB yet. So far I’ve read several books — I’ll post a list soon, and I plan to watch BBB and Orgasmic Birth, and to watch/listen to? the Hypnobirthing stuff.

I’ve had three without anesthesia and two with epidurals. In my most recent delivery I had to be induced early because of life-threateningly dangerous hypertension, and I don’t know if my baby or I would have survived without the epidural, which both helped regulate my blood pressure and made it possible for me to endure labor while in a significantly weakened condition. Also, in our case the electronic monitoring may have saved my baby’s life, because the delivery nurse was able to observe that Hazel showed distress depending on the position I labored in, so she kept me in a position that didn’t depress Hazel’s heart rate. Sure enough, Hazel was born with the cord around her neck, and the nurse’s careful adjustments to my position (she had me lying towards one side with one hip elevated) really may have saved Hazel’s life or prevented brain damage.

That said, I’m still happy that I was able to have my first three labors without anesthesia; it’s hard to explain what’s so joyful about enduring more pain, but it really was thrilling to me to experience that I could do that, and to feel more free and less unencumbered. (But wow, that third one did hurt. My baby was big with broad shoulders, and it was at least three weeks before I could recall that labor without cringing and wincing.)