Natural birth

[Weirdbigtoe]

What is classed as a natural birth-is it vaginal birth with no pain relief at all?
I had a vaginal birth, but requested epidural. My mum to this day still asks why, I can’t remember being massively informed at the time, but just basically not wanting any pain, is this weird? It seems incredulous to my mum. It wouldn’t have affected my Dd would it?
Where I am they don’t have gas & air, the only option was epidural or not, hence why I went for it, if they had gas and air I would have had that

This is the thing though, they’re not any better. It wasn’t my fault/choice that I was high risk and had to be induced, it also wasn’t my choice to have forceps and he cut 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m just looking at the reaction to people daring to say natural birth. You get the usual “where’s your medal?” “Why are you putting your body through that?”

I don’t mind labour. I’m incredibly lucky. I went to a midwife led unit. It was just a safe, lovely place to have baby. Was out and home within hours with my last 2 because I had zero intervention. I was really happy with the whole experience but it just seems to wind people up on here!

I had two babies "naturally" without pain relief. I breastfed them, coslept with them, did blw with one, used a sling, was a sahm.. all the "aspirational" parenting choices.

Does any of that really matter now they ate 10&12yo? No. No one asks them how they learnt to eat solids or what milk they had or howI transported them. No one asks if they were born by c section in a theatre or at home in a pool. None of it actually matters long term.

This is sadly not true. There have been many threads on here about 'D'Hs thinning they get a say in the birth and expecting their wives to give birth without pain relief.

It's all nonsense and no one should care about anyone else's birth except the 2 people involved - mum and baby.

@PuttingDownRoots
The kind of births you have really only matters to you, the mum, because of the types of trauma and birth injuries we suffer vary.

Natural birth isn't a medical term.

'Normal vaginal delivery' is commonly used in the NHS... means a vaginal delivery without the use of forceps or a kiwi.

To me a natural birth is a vaginal delivery. I don’t think of it in terms of whether or not you had pain relief or not. I had 3 vaginal births, but 1 assisted delivery. And I guess 1 with no pain relief whatsoever (and 1 with an epidural).

One baby with epidural. One baby with gas and air (no time for epidural). Wise to take the epidural if you can.

And agree with others, I've heard it used to mean non assisted vaginal delivery. But it's not the best/ clearest term.

It's a term used to make others feel superior.

Give it no headspace and tell your mum to fuck right off.

Your baby was delivered 's all that matters. I don't like the natural birth badge of honour thing, it's almost as though they use it as a benchmark to assess who is the most deserving to have their child, as if suffering during the birth makes them a more worthy mother. If she delivered without needing intervention then great, but some of us needed help and fortunately in our part of the world we have medical intervention at hand if we need it.

Strange you think natural birth requires more suffering. I have found the exact opposite to be true.

I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. It isn't that I believe one way or another means more or less suffering, its the martyr complex with some people that they associate with a natural birth, ie op's mum.

I think your mother sounds weird. Childbirth is painful, you used pain relief. What's there not to understand? I had a 10-lb baby with no epidural. It wasn't unbearable, but I had an epidural the next time.

Its not a term I use but I think of it as vaginal birth as opposed to C-section and think it's used because people don't like saying vaginal!
For those who use it for unassisted births with no pain relief there are just two many variables. Does gas and air count, what about tens machines. What if it's a natural birth with no pain relief but then forceps used. Does that make it unnatural. What if none of the above but stitches required afterwards. It's just a really unhelpful and judgemental term.

I've always thought that "natural birth" meant no drugs. "Vaginal birth" is via the birth canal, C-section is a C-section.

At the end, there's a baby, so none of those details are super important to me. 😍👶 Honestly, if someone woman is shaming another woman over how she gave birth, she needs something to occupy her mind other than someone else's beeswax. 😎

i like to say I unmedicated vaginal birth. I was induced with daughter. No medication. Birthing ball. Small hospital with older wiser nurses. Son bigger hospital natural labor would nt let me out of bed. Do not remember any of the pain or the births. I’m petite and babies 7.0 lbs. I would recommend…dont be induced… labor if you can while walking using birthing ball leaning over bed etc. epidural is fine but I did better without it. I was married to a doctor and passive. talked into induction. Keep your focus..a healthy baby and a healthy mama. Ask questions don’t be afraid to say no. No one gets a medal or loudspeaker announcement for vaginal or unmedicated birth. I did not tear nor need an episiotomy. I would tell my daughter…labor as long as you safely can at home. Walk and talk thru the pain.

@Sometimeswinning because, as you can see from some of the other comments on here, some women believe that because they had an unmedicated birth and it went well for them, everyone else can do it too, if only they just breathed the right way and believed in themselves. Very patronising for those of us who couldn't and puts us immediately on the defensive.

Personally I have a low pain threshold and an unmedicated birth would have been very traumatic for me so I had every option going. I'm don't want to be made to feel inferior for choosing what I needed. .

I had oramorph, pethidine and gas and air during my labour and those were fantastic decisions. I was so relaxed I never consciously pushed - my body just did it all for me.
I've never been asked if I had a natural birth but if anyone implied to me I'd done the wrong thing by my child, I'd give them very short shrift.

Unless they were there or have access to your medical records no one will ever know about your childbirth choices. When I've been asked about my experiences I've given varied accounts depending on how judgy the person is and how their prejudices lie. Several of my relatives believe that I had 3 fully natural births with no pain relief or interventions.

Pretty sure where I live a “natural” birth means no interventions. No induction or pain relief.

I’ve never cared how other women choose to birth or feed their babies.

I chose to go as pain free as possible (epidural all 3 times). Worked for me.

We don’t have the gas and air option but all my sisters used that.

I had a “natural vaginal birth” at home.

this means that:
I birthed my baby without the assistance of drugs. And IT WAS BLOODY PAINFUL.

Would I do it again? Absolutely ♥️

Thats not a well used term amongst people who work in the world of birth any more. There is a move towards physiological birth instead. I would define physiological birth as no induction, no artificial oxytocin, no epidural and no caesarean, forceps or ventouse. An increasingly rare beast amongst first time mothers.

A natural birth is one with no intervention or pain relief. I had all home births didn't need pain relief loves it

After my emergency c section and then second baby by c section, I had someone say it's a shame I won't get to experience a natural birth. I said after 36 hrs of labour the first time I felt like I had earned that t shirt and I would rather my babies were safe.

Thank goodness we don't have to rely on natural birth. Both my babies would likely be dead, many women would have life long injuries both physically and mentally. We forget the high mortality rate for women.