Reasons for medication-free childbirth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess that baby emerging from my vagina sans drugs must have been a very realistic and continuing hallucination, since he is now almost 2 years old. I just think it's at least a little bit silly to be so fantastically proud of something that happens world wide, around the clock, without women giving themselves the dramatic pat on the back that seems so common here. So many women act like they deserve a medal for merely participating in an unstoppable biological function. Giving birth is certainly hard on the body, drugs or not, but it's not prize worthy. You'd think there was a secret Birth Experience Olympic and many women are vying for the Gold Medal of Most Amazing Human Ever for Letting Nature Take its Course.

I get that it's an every day experience, but I would imagine that for a lot of women, it is one of the hardest and most intense things they will ever go through physically, and I don't think that they shouldn't feel proud of doing something really hard. I feel proud of accomplishing a lot of things that are a hell of a lot more trite than childbirth, and I'm absolutely sure that when my daughter is born this spring, I will feel more proud of her birth than anything else I've done in life so far.

[Anonymous]

sorry, PP (14:24), it looks like you don't have the right to be proud of her birth, so you should let that go before you have your daughter. 14:06 has spoken and handed down her edict. no woman may be proud of her accomplishment of birth.

[Anonymous]

I don't want to get into the moral debate-- I prepared for a drug free birth for the main reason that I didn't want to have a c section and was wary of the "cascade of interventions" that starting medications *can* bring. (not bashing c sections, they are sometimes necessary but having had 2 surgeries in the past 2 years and an infection from surgery #2 I had a lot of emotional baggage around being cut open again in general). In the end the epidural probably saved me from a c/s. Why? my water broke, however my bishop score was 1, and contractions did not start in the next 12 hours. b/c of risk of infection (i was gbs positive) doc wanted baby out sooner rather than later (even waiting 12 hours was going against his comfort zone). So went to the hospital, had pitocin continuously which produced very intense contractions for the next 10 hours. I labored w/o medication, which was hard but bearable. However, after 10 hours I had progressed to only 1 cm. This was bad news--failure to progress, and b/c I was on a "clock" of sorts (infection, etc) the dreaded c section was looming. Our doula suggested I could try an epidural--seeing that I was not making progress on my own (and it was pretty exhausting) I chose to try it and it did the trick of helping my body to relax and I dilated the next 9 cm in 8 hours to have a healthy, vaginal birth. It was wearing off in the end, so I was able to move my legs and work with the contractions to push baby out fairly easily. Both I and baby were alert after and luckily I did not have any of the side effects that can accompany epidural. Had I refused the epidural, perhaps I could have continued to labor w/o drugs and dilated, but between the nature of pitocin contractions and the fact that all were concerned about infection, I am pretty sure I would have been strongly advised to get a c section (one could another debate over whether I could have waited longer after my water breaking to see if labor would start on its own--but even my doula said that in the cases where the water breaks and labor does not start, often midwives will eventually recommend induction).

I think if I have another kid, I'll still prepare for a drug free birth, but I also know that the epidural had its positive aspects (besides the pain relief, which was significant and by that time certainly welcome).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sorry, PP (14:24), it looks like you don't have the right to be proud of her birth, so you should let that go before you have your daughter. 14:06 has spoken and handed down her edict. no woman may be proud of her accomplishment of birth.

LOL. Now I will have to find something ELSE to be proud of. What would 14:06 suggest I choose to be proud of instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say it, but most of the moms who give a crap about what kind of birth someone else had, in my admittedly limited experience, are moms who got the epidural and feel somehow insecure when talking to someone who didn't.

There are women on both sides of the fence who are judgmental and bitchy. You have just proven that with your post.

Thankfully, there are women on both sides of the fence who are "live and let live". I had an epidural and have no regrets. After nineteen hours of painful labor, I was ready for it and it worked wonderfully for me. But I am also amazed and proud of my friends and relatives who have birthed naturally.

People should do what works for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it's the medicalized births that require overnight stays, and it's these moms who have the baby sleep in the nursery so that they can get some sleep and recover from the epidurals.

This is a stupid thing to say. Are you trying to start a fight?

I had an epidural and my daughter stayed with me in my room while I was in the hospital.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it's the medicalized births that require overnight stays, and it's these moms who have the baby sleep in the nursery so that they can get some sleep and recover from the epidurals.

One of the postpartum nurses realized how tired I was and suggested that I send the baby to the nursery so I could get some sleep for one of the nights that i was in the hospital. That was one of the best decisions-I got the much needed sleep, and felt like a whole new person the following day. DH was exhausted too because he was up with us the previous nights. What's wrong with that? And oh, I was breastfeeding and I decided giving the baby formula that night (my decision) would be fine-it didn't ruin the breastfeeding, it didn't interfere with bonding. All the nonsense and high expectations!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what the more appropriate marathon analogy is? All of us are running the marathon. We are ALL preparing for it (pregnancy is preparation, is it not?). And we ALL put in effort. Perhaps the natural laborers put in the *most* effort and maybe get a better time. But we all ran the same marathon and finished just like you did. Now...using the marathon analogy correctly, if somebody who got a better time flaunted it to somebody who did not put in the same level of effort, the way some women flaunt it on here, yes, that makes you a self-righteous bitch. Sorry, but enough with the sugar coating....

Those of you who got an epidural though -- you're like the "marathon" runner in NYC who took the subway.

And this is why we all think you are pompous, self-righteous assholes. Your life must be pretty pathetic if you have to prove yourself better than other women simply by giving natural childbirth.

Oh - and what about the women who did it naturally, but only labored for a couple of hours? I guess they only ran part of the marathon...give it a rest. You just sound obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes as much sense as being proud of taking a crap without a laxative.
Signed,
Mom who birthed without pain medication, but doesn't think it's The Greatest Most Amazing Miraculous Accomplishment Ever

natural birth compared to shitting w/o a stool softener --you take the cake for the most idiotic comparison i've seen on dcurbanmoms, and believe me, you had some competition. i don't believe that you are anything more than a troll. there's no way you birthed naturally and would come across as so angry toward women who feel proud of what they did.

signed,
a natural birther who did think that her experience was one of the greatest, most amazing and miraculous accomplishments ever.

Ahh...but would you really think differently if you had given birth with pain medication? It would still be the greatest, most amazing thing ever. That is the point you really are missing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And this is why we all think you are pompous, self-righteous assholes. Your life must be pretty pathetic if you have to prove yourself better than other women simply by giving natural childbirth.

Oh - and what about the women who did it naturally, but only labored for a couple of hours? I guess they only ran part of the marathon...give it a rest. You just sound obnoxious.

I'd have to check with all the other pompous, self righteous assholes since you seem to have consulted all the bitter, jealous epidural seekers.... but I fully suspect we'd agree that even the woman who labored only for a few hours still gets her marathon medal because she still managed to accomplish what you couldn't. Don't hate, dear. I'm sure you're good at something. We know it's not natural birth or being nice, but there have to be other things. I'm confident that you're not a total loss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sorry, PP (14:24), it looks like you don't have the right to be proud of her birth, so you should let that go before you have your daughter. 14:06 has spoken and handed down her edict. no woman may be proud of her accomplishment of birth.

Only the natural laborers have the right to be proud. The rest of us, who choose differently, should be thankful of a painfree birth, but hardly *proud* of giving birth.

Nobody is saying that a woman shouldn't be proud of giving birth. Some of us are just saying that the natural laborers seem to imply that *only* they should be proud, like the rest of us copped out or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And this is why we all think you are pompous, self-righteous assholes. Your life must be pretty pathetic if you have to prove yourself better than other women simply by giving natural childbirth.

Oh - and what about the women who did it naturally, but only labored for a couple of hours? I guess they only ran part of the marathon...give it a rest. You just sound obnoxious.

I'd have to check with all the other pompous, self righteous assholes since you seem to have consulted all the bitter, jealous epidural seekers.... but I fully suspect we'd agree that even the woman who labored only for a few hours still gets her marathon medal because she still managed to accomplish what you couldn't. Don't hate, dear. I'm sure you're good at something. We know it's not natural birth or being nice, but there have to be other things. I'm confident that you're not a total loss.

Why the hell would I be jealous of women who *accomplish* the same thing that I do? See...that is where I just think you guys suck. You can't help yourself but instantly think - oh she is jealous - you don't look at the obnoxious things you write that completely belittle other women's choices by implying that yours is superior. I'm sorry if this struck a nerve with me, but I just find it unbelieveable that some women actually think they are *better* than others because they gave birth naturally.

Oh and I could easily give birth naturally - I have actually run a marathon. Not just pretended that I have done something similar.

[Anonymous]

I like the point someone else made about celebrating the power of giving birth.

I had a quasi-natural birth (pitocin but no epidural) and think every woman who carries a child and gives birth should be celebrated! It is an amazing achievement that most of us will probably only experience a few times in our lives.

That said, all mothers, whether birth mothers or not, should be honored!! Let's stop the ugly comments, I don't think they're helping anyone at this stage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Oh and I could easily give birth naturally - I have actually run a marathon. Not just pretended that I have done something similar.

i've done both. doesn't seem like you have. and i can tell you, for me, i'd take a marathon any day of the week. which would you choose? oh yeah, you don't know because you just claim that you could easily give birth naturally, but haven't actually done it. when you get around to that "easy" task, then we can talk. til then, you know not of where you speak.

[Anonymous]

And this is why we all think you are pompous, self-righteous assholes. Your life must be pretty pathetic if you have to prove yourself better than other women simply by giving natural childbirth.

Oh - and what about the women who did it naturally, but only labored for a couple of hours? I guess they only ran part of the marathon...give it a rest. You just sound obnoxious.


Whooaaaaaa.....I'm getting lost in a dark and stormy sea of assholes. Please, someone, help me find the way out!