(Heather Said) My Decision for a Natural Birth

This is the lady that actually made the concept of a natural birth seem like a realistic prospect to me. It is fascinating to me the different reasons people have for making the decisions they make concerning their birth experience (the parts they can control). For some, they just know that the epidural is for them, for others they would never consider anything but the most natural experience. Heather really put a lot of research into her own decision- again, I like to benefits from others' hard work. Heather's take...

Just the title of this post will immediately make the majority of people scoff.  After I made the decision to attempt a drug-free childbirth, I remember being laughed at, thought crazy, and in some cases completely dismissed.  Even the labor and delivery nurse raised her eyebrows at me.  I think women should be informed and make the best decision for herself and her family.

I am not against drugs.  In fact, I’ve relied heavily on sinus medication over the years. One of my big concerns with getting pregnant was taking allergy medication throughout my pregnancy to prevent a sinus infection which would require antibiotics. After discussion with my doctor, we settled on an allergy drug considered safe for pregnancy.  This started me wondering how doctors can really classify a drug as safe when you can’t exactly test the drug on a group of pregnant women.

I didn’t really give ‘drugs’ any more thought for a while after that.  I dutifully cut out all things deemed “bad” for pregnancy – artificial sweeteners, caffeine, extra sugar, sushi, and limited my deli meat to once a week – all advised by my obstetrician.

I started asking my friends how Lamaze class at the local hospital worked.  Everyone I talked to said Lamaze class was a joke and they only went because they were supposed to.  I like to know all the available options, and my search turned up a local Bradley Method Class.  The material looked informative and the instructor seemed nice so I signed us up. The Bradley Method focuses on health, and empowers the husband as part of the birth process by recognizing the responsibility for preparing for birth (see www.babycenter.com/0_bradley-method-of-childbirth_631.bc).  It’s not perfect, and there are people who are more invested in “the method” than I am/was.

While trying to be as informed as I could about my pregnancy, I started reading articles about childbirth and different pain management options.  Epidurals are probably the most common form of pain relief during labor and delivery, and I have never given a second thought about having one.  My reading informed me of the disadvantages of an epidural – large needle inserted in spine, requires IV, blood pressure monitoring, fetal monitoring, can slow labor which then requires Pitocin, often makes the pushing stage longer, vacuum extraction or foceps are more likely needed, can provide spotty pain relief, may lower your blood pressure which in turn slows baby’s heart rate, can cause nausea, itchiness, may require a catheter, fever, higher rate of posterior babies, bad headache, and rarely breathing problems, nerve injury, infection (see www.babycenter.com/0_epidural-pain-relief-for-labor_1489911.bc?showAll=true). Exactly how the epidural effects the baby is controversial, but some medications used in the epidural do enter the bloodstream of baby.  Studies indicate possible respiratory problems and decreased activity of epidural babies. I thought to myself “so I spend nine (ten) months foregoing coffee and soda and then on baby’s birthday I take a narcotic?” and I could no longer justify the epidural for myself.  Don’t get me wrong – epidurals are safe and the concoction of medication and dosage of medication has improved drastically through the years, and babies come through the epidural and grow up to be healthy kids and adults.  Most of us are epidural babies.  However, based on the information I found, I decided that I didn’t want pain management drugs in labor unless they were absolutely necessary (think emergency C-section).

My obstetrician was not thrilled with my epiphany.  But on my next visit, my OB happened to be busy with an emergency cesarean, and the office had a midwife filling in for her appointments.  I asked the midwife one question and she just overflowed with information.  She was very supportive of any choice I wanted to make and was even willing to offer suggestions. (My decision to use a midwife is another topic – in short the midwife group was all certified nurses specially trained in delivering babies and all worked closely with an overseeing obstetrician and attended hospital births).

I recognized that just making the decision to have a natural birth was different than it actually happening.  Fortunately, the Bradley class I had chosen focuses on natural birth.  Bradley taught me coping and relaxation techniques for pain management, and suggested using the techniques to relax during pregnancy, in effect allowing my body to ‘practice’ before the big event.

My birth wasn’t perfect.  I had high blood pressure at the end of my pregnancy, was induced with Pitocin (yep I researched that before I allowed it into my body), had to labor lying down to keep my blood pressure down.  Anna was an extremely alert newborn – eyes open and picking up her head hours after being born.  Looking back, I don’t know if her alertness was due to her strong will or the fact that she never received any pain medication, but I was at peace about my decision for a natural birth because it was the best thing for me and my baby.