Why do woman choose natural childbirth, or waterbirths?
ByIm just curious, woman say, I am only having a natural delivery, or Im going to have my baby in the water. Im not trying to sound crass, but is it boast about how strong of a woman you are, or is it because you believe epidurals are not good for babies. I have had 4 children each with an epidural, with a doctor. No home birthing, any of that stuff. I really dont know why anyone would want to. All 4 children healthy as a horse. Just interested in knowing why woman choose to undergo complete hell when drugs are available?
Yes you are right about the needle in the back, I have had unexplainable pain in that area for years that I know is linked to the epidural. I hear ya on that one.
You all rock with your answers. Thank you.
Related posts:
- why do so many women prefer to go through natural childbirth instead of getting a medicated one?
- can a high risk woman have natural childbirth?
- Have you had natural childbirth and birth with an epidural?
- why do some women mock, insult, and discourage other women for planning a natural childbirth?
- natural childbirth or drugs?
6 Comments
February 28th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
I’d never do a water birth. A friend of my husband’s did a water birth and the baby drowned!! Natural I wanted to do natural because I didn’t want the baby to get the drugs. BUT… after a few heavy contractions I opted for the epidural. And I’ll do epidurals from now on!!
February 28th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
I’m doing natural because there is no way in hell someone is going to shove a needle in my back… I know so many women that have constant back problems years after their epidurals. I don’t want to give birth in water, but I would like to have water as a labor method. I defiantly want to have a land baby. I don’t care if people think I’m a sissy or the most heroic person ever, they’re not shoving that thing in my back lol
February 28th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
I think it is a little of both of what you said.
Some people think it should be natural, they dont want their babies born drugged out, yadda yadda. However, I think of it as….200 years ago people delivered without drugs. Okay. Well, they also did surgery without drugs. Would you go into surgery without drugs? Or anti-biotics? lol
Water births are weird. Cause Im quite certain people didnt go into lakes 200 years ago and deliver babies. I guess they find it takes the pain away.
Id find a shot of morphine would also do that, but hey, thats just me lol
February 28th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
1. Because they want to experience childbirth fully.
2. Because they want to avoid the risks associated with medication. (Of course not all babies/women are harmed by the meds. But there IS a risk.)
3. Because they find that THEIR labor isn’t painful enough to require medication.
4. Because they want a home birth and meds aren’t available.
5. Because they don’t want to spend the money on anesthesia/the services of the anesthesiologists/treating the ‘cascade of interventions’ that so often follows the decision to have an epidural.
6. So they can lord themselves over other women and get a medal. (I’m sure that there is ONE woman, somewhere in the world, who chose it for this reason, so I’ll include it to be complete.)
February 28th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
With my first child I didn’t have a choice. They did not offer epidurals at my hospital back then. Thank goodness! It wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be, but quite do-able! After that, I never thought there was a need for it. Then I became a doula. I learned that epidurals and medications shut off the natural hormones in your body. These hormones all have a great purpose. I won’t go into it, as it would take me an hour to write all the benefits. But that wasn’t really my main concern. Babies do have effects from medications, including epidurals. Women have cesareans every day due to the effects of what is called the ‘domino effect’. Personally, for me, someone who planned a big family, I wanted to avoid a cesarean, and staying clear of interventions is one huge way of decreasing my chances for a cesarean. I’ve given birth after only 45 minutes of figuring out if I was even in labor. Not enough time to think about having an epidural. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that it would work. I also don’t like the fact that many women who have had epidurals, suffer from severe back problems for weeks, months and even years afterwards. Some even permanent leg, or other areas of nerve damage. Spinal headaches do not appeal to me at all, and I would much rather give birth without drugs, than deal with a headache of that degree after my baby is born. That should be a time to enjoy the baby, not be in agony. I have a curve in my spine, and I simply didn’t want to take the chance on any of these things happening to me.
I spend weeks in bed with preterm labor trying to keep my babies in my belly long enough to be able to come home with me the next day. I’ve only had 2 out of 6 of them come home with me the next day. Had I had an epidural, it would have been *my luck*, that I would be one to develop a maternal fever (which is very common with an epidural), that would cause my baby to have to have unnecessary antibiotics, and perhaps even a full septic workup right after birth. Days of antibiotics because they have to give it to them, even after mom and baby come out clean for everything. They know the fever is caused by the epidural, but they have to treat both in case it wasn’t. I don’t want to be in that group. For me the pain of birth, isn’t bad anyway. I stay out of bed and use other comfort measures. No hell for me, and many other women who give birth every day without drugs. Thank goodness, we all have a choice!
February 28th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Partly because I don’t think the drugs are good for the baby (they are more lethargic and often have trouble nursing right away) but mostly for my own health. A lot of people I know who got epidurals have long-term back problems, even years after they had their baby. The medicine can also cause headaches, and I’m very susceptible to migraines – not something I want when I’m trying to enjoy my new baby. I’m also very allergic to a lot of medications and don’t really want to find out that’s one of them while I’m in labor.
People who choose water birth (myself included) do for a variety of reasons, but mine are that it offers some natural pain relief (obviously not as well as drugs, but it does lessen the pain) and softens your perineum and greatly reduces your chances of tearing. I’m also planning on trying Hypnobabies and Bradley for natural pain relief.
Epidurals also greatly increase your risk of c-section…any time you introduce an intervention it can lead to other interventions that may not have been necessary otherwise. Epi can slow down labor, mess with your blood pressure, mess with the baby’s heartrate, and because you can’t get up and move around with one you can’t use the movement of your body to help the baby get into position or have options for the position you give birth in. (Flat on your back working against gravity is the worst position to birth in and is the position you’re most likely to have a bad tear in…plus you’re more likely to tear anyway because you can’t feel when your body is really telling you to push – you just push when the doctor & nurses scream at you.)
So at least for me, it’s not about trying to be superwoman, it’s an educated decision after weighing the pros and cons that natural birth is medically safer and more conducive to the kind of birth I want to have, trusting my body to do the work it was designed to do. I don’t judge other women for choosing the epidural, it’s just not for me.
However I do think that doctors gloss over the risks and wonder if so many women would choose to have them if they were really aware of the increased c-section rates, tearing and risk of back problems or reactions to the meds. I don’t think they really go over all the risks and side effects when you’re in labor and screaming for it.