Have you had natural childbirth and birth with an epidural?

I’ve had 4 children, only with my second did i have an epidural, In my opinion, it prolonged things, my labor lasted twice as long as with my other 3. When i had my last 2 children I chose no pain medication, of course mid way through each time I begged for some! But I withstood the pain fine, did fine. If I had it to do over again, I wouldnt do the epidural, the sharp pain isnt there, but there is still pressure and some pain. Its easier, for me, to push and get it over with fast!

with my first son i was induced and i had to have a epid.. to help with my blood pressure,, it helped but i didnt like not being able to get out of bed, the cathader.. and i still felt a little contractions and i felt it when the baby came out.. my second,, my waters broke at 31 weeks and i went to the hospital where they gave me steroids and nothing for pain,, that was on a friday and finally monday at 9 my second son was born,, i wasnt aloud any pain killers and the worst part was the cramps they hurt so bad,, when the nurse would touch my belly that hurt,, and after when the other part has to come out .. them pushing on my belly hurt like hell… having a ep, helps with stiches after words if u need them,, and for that first pee after the cathader comes out, if u dont have an ep that hurts..

Less pain is best. That’s what I think. There is no reason to go throught all that pain if you don’t have to. This country has been using pain medication for years. THere are no side effects for the baby. It is completly healthy to use medication. I do recommend the Epidural. I’ve had three kids and with my first I tried a general pain med first. I couldn’t even stay awake! With the epidural for my last two births I was wide awake and fully aware of what was going on. I got to hold my kids right after birth also. If you are in to much pain because of delivery you might not be able to hold your baby right after. Isay pain free is better. If you really think about it, there is no real reason to suffer through that pain. If I could do it all over again, I’d still choose the epidural. It was amazing! Pain free!

pro epidural, all the way. i mean, the side effects are few (despite many women complaining about back pain). There are scientific studies showing basically no link to these pains and epidurals. The most obvious reason to get an ep. is to reduce the pain to next to nothing, but it also gives you much more energy to push out the placenta, breast feed baby, say all those lame “thankyous” in reply to visitors, etc.
and if you have a hubby with you, you look super tough having someone stick a four inch long needle into your spine! heck yeah

I’ve had natural childbirth twice. The thought of a needle going into my spine seemed worse. I didn’t feel too much pain. By the time the pressure and pain is at it’s worst, the baby is about to be born anyway so it would have been too late for an epidural at that point. Everyone is different but that was my experience.

There are more things that are important to consider other than just pain vs. side effects. Other choices that you make about your labor and delivery will have an effect on your pain tolerance, as well as the risk of side effects. If you feel relaxed, and move around during labor, there is a good chance that it will be less painful than if you are laying in bed on your back with no easily available coping mechanisms to deal with the pain. On the other hand, if you are very nervous or scared, or if you are treated badly (in your opinion) by your caregivers during labor, it may hurt more, and you may be less able to deal with the pain. If you are induced, or if you go into labor naturally will have a HUGE difference, usually. Inductions are reportedly much more painful, with stronger, more frequent contractions starting all of the sudden, with no gradual increase to get used to them. Also, since an induction means an IV and monitoring, there are position problems at work as well.

If you have an epidural, chances are you will be confined to bed, laying down. There is such thing as a “walking epidural”, but they seem elusive (I’ve never heard of a person actually having one, either in real life on on a forum). It is not uncommon for an electronic fetal heart monitor to be hooked up for the duration of labor (although fifteen minutes of monitoring upon admission and “checks” every hour are all that is deemed necessary by the WHO), as well as a catheter, since it may be difficult for the mother to get to the bathroom if she can’t feel her legs, and also because it is unlikely that the nursing staff will want to un-hook and re-hook her up to the various pieces of equipment being used. These are things that some people don’t seem to mind, and others wish to avoid.

If you are in bed, on your back, it is likely that your labor will take longer, which puts you at risk for various other interventions such as artificial rupture of membranes, augmentation of labour with Pitocin, or a c-section for “failure to progress” if your labor exceeds the amount of time deemed reasonable by the hospital’s policy, as determined by the Friedman curve (basically a bell curve of average labor times-hospitals want you to deliver at the top of the bell, and often view labors that last “too long” as in need of intervention).

As far as the actual delivery, an epidural greatly increases the chances of tearing. It is common for the mother to be encouraged to push by nurses or support people, since she is unable to feel the urge to push herself. This can cause tearing or hemorrhoids, since the mother can’t tell just how hard she is pushing, or feel the pain associated with any damage to her perineum. Also, laying on one’s back is a factor that contributes both to “difficult” deliveries and tearing.

A woman’s pelvis separates into seven different pieces during pregnancy and birth, thanks to the hormone relaxin. In a squatting position, a woman’s pelvis is 20% larger than it is when she is laying down. This “extra space” is very useful when the perineum is stretching to accommodate the baby’s head, making a tear less likely. A squatting position (or hands and knees) is also much more conducive to the baby passing through the pelvis, lessening the chances of a “stuck” baby, or the determination that the baby is “too big” or the pelvis is “too small” (a condition called cephalo-pelvic disproportion, which does not actually exist except in cases of extreme malnutrition or rickets that cause a mutation of the woman’s pelvis, or a serious accident that severely damaged her pelvis, despite frequent misdiagnoses).

If you don’t want an epidural, make sure you have other ways of dealing with pain. Don’t get stuck laying on your back in bed, because that is the least comfortable position in the universe for a woman in labor (without an epidural, anyway–I’m sure it’s not as bad if you can’t feel anything from the waist down!). You can acclimatize to pain gradually, and there will be adrenaline and endorphins surging through your body to help you deal with it, if you choose to “go natural”.

Good luck! I’m sorry this got so long, but there is just so much to say!