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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

Original poster

What constitutes a natural birth?

35 replies

Fruitloop · 12/09/2003 15:44

With my dd i was given a pethedine injection at 6cm dilated and had her 45 minutes later. Does that mean that I had a natural childbirth because I was later told that the pethedine would not have worked in time? By the way, I am a great advocate of pain free births but I was too fast with both children to benefit.

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Cam · 15/09/2003 11:04

Doormat's definition must include a midwife to deliver surely? That's still intervention.

zebra · 15/09/2003 05:31

I agree with Doormat's definition.

Also agree that pethidine is useless for pain relief!

Does it truly matter if a birth is "natural" or not? Well, it doesn't mean very much to me, anyway. So define it how you like, if you want.

wobblymum · 14/09/2003 23:15

I think you should be able to call it a natural birth if you felt like you really gave birth yourself, even if it was with drugs, and that it wasn't the hospital intervening every 5 minutes to force the baby out.

I had gas and air (a LOT of the stuff) and a TENS machine and I count that as a perfectly natural birth.

Original poster
Fruitloop · 12/09/2003 19:24

Hmmmm? What about gas & air?

OP posts:
CP · 12/09/2003 18:15

I'm with CountessDracula - natural in my world is vaginal with painkillers if necessary.

Grommit · 12/09/2003 17:29

How could anything that painful be natural

CountessDracula · 12/09/2003 17:13

I must be v dim. Always though natural childbirth meant having a vaginal birth even if you were topped up to the eyeballs with an epidural.

Oakmaiden · 12/09/2003 17:12

Depends how you look at it. To me a "natural childbirth" is one that is totally physiological - so with nothing that changes the normal physiology of mother or baby. So that would be spontaneous onset of labour, minimal monitoring, possibly non-pharmacological pain relief (but i'm not sure about that, as the pain reflex-pathway thing is a physiological part of labour), involunatary pushing and a physiological third stage. But that is just how I interpret the phrase - I suspect others interpret it differently.

I myself would not consider a birth involving pethidine to be "natural" in that sense (not saying it is "unnatural" though!) - although unless you had a ventouse/forceps/c.section then it was probably "normal".

Any help?

doormat · 12/09/2003 16:59

I always thought a natural childbirth is with no intervention at all.

CountessDracula · 12/09/2003 15:46

If you had a peth injection it should work immediately. Am I wrong?

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