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

Oh my god! I can't imagine, that sounds beyond the beyonds

I had a "natural birth" in so far as I was lucky there were no delays or complications & I stayed at home so left it too late for pain relief but I'm under no illusion that it was luck that saw me through, so I don't like the term "natural birth" it's pretty much luck of the draw & I feel it diminshes child birth & all the various ways it happens

@Weirdbigtoe hi, I have been working in labour wards as an anaesthetist for 10 years+

ALL births are natural. unless you have an actual Rosemary's baby situation, it's not unnatural.

for a long time, this myth of natural birth has been bandied around and frankly this has only happened because women give birth. if men had to give birth, they would already have found a way to grow babies in labs.

having a painful birth doesn't make it natural. 300 years ago, we used to get patients drunk, knock them out with a punch and chop off whatever bit needed chopping. we obviously don't do that now.

there are no medals. having a birth without pain relief or medical intervention doesn't make the birth better, doesn't make the mother a better mother and the baby doesn't come out with special powers.

so ask for pain relief, ask for an epidural and ask for it early. if people give you guilt trips, tell them to go away.

lso I feel like this idea of natural birth is yet another stick to beat women with. all women used to have painrelief free vaginal births few hundred years back (expect for the unlucky few that had caeserians and were literally murdered to save the baby). and a significant proportion of them died or had life changing injuries.

even now, women are dying and suffering all over the world due to having no access to medical care during child birth. I have been involved in projects on promoting safe birth in Bangladesh. the underprivileged women there would give their right arm for the services we have here. so the fetishisation of intervention free vaginal birth feels like a slap in the face to them and all the women who have had complex/traumatic births.

@IslaWinds "Can be at home or in a hospital- although 99% of hospitals can’t not intervene in some way so very rare."
Really? Are only 1% of hospital births without intervention? Is that a genuine stat?

Honestly women being made to feel bad for not suffering the pain! Can you imagine a man refusing pain relief like a martyr. ?Every birth is different, pain levels are different, tolerance to pain is different.

I've had 3 births , all vaginal. One I had epidural, pethidine and gas and air. One I had gas and air and one I had nothing. They were all positive birth experiences.

Epidural is considered safe, it can make it harder to push meaning intervention is more likely. It can cause back issues. But the risks are low.

It's no one's business but yours what pain relief you chose.

Agree 100%.

I try never to say "natural birth" now, although back in my day it was the term routinely used for a vaginal birth without intervention. Back then it was something many of us hoped for, and it was OK to be a little disappointed if it didn't happen. I think that not being OK is one of the big changes that I've seen in attitudes to childbirth over my lifetime.

I would recommend…dont be induced… labor if you can while walking using birthing ball leaning over bed etc.

I do understand you are well meaning but if you say these things to your daughter in the future you are being like op's mum.

No mum, ever, has actively chosen to be induced, like it's fun. We usually get induced because there's some medical reason why the baby has to be born urgently eg abnormal heart rate, signs of infection, signs of distress. Under those circumstances it's induction or c-section, not "labour if you can by walking".

Lots of mums, myself included, wish they could have "laboured by walking". It simply wasn't an option.

People have to understand that, in cases where things start to go wrong (which can happen a lot), we mums simply don't have much control over how things go and what interventions are required to save the mum and baby. It's simply nothing to do with having "older and wiser midwives". Without these interventions, more mums and babies would die.

Everything is a choice, it is your body. Nobody has a right to do anything to it without your say so.

I assume your mum hasn't been induced, if she had she would know it can be very painful so it is quite common to opt for an epidural. There are risk factors with this, like there are with any intervention, your baby would have been born drugged, I don't know the risk factors for this in regard to the baby but I do know it can effect the golden hour and breastfeeding relationship.

I’ve never used the term natural birth but if I had to describe it I’d say a vaginal birth with no pain meds and no interventions. In the sense it happened completely spontaneously naturally.

But by the time your out of the baby stages nobody really asks you about your birth experiences until the next generation start anyway.

If I had a "natural birth", I would probably have died both times!

The first time, my placenta didnt come out after baby was delivered. I was rushed to the theater to have it removed manually. There were like 20 Drs and Nurses in the room ( not Uk). My husband had to sign a consent form in a rush. I was overwhelmed, luckily I had epidural and didnt feel the pain, but the strength of the pulls inside me by the Dr was unforgettable.

The second time, this was in the UK. I had a sudden blood loss after baby was delivered, the midwife pressed a ring bell and suddenly lots of Drs rushed in. The room was small, but I remember it was packed with people. Eventually they managed to stop the blood. Again I had epidural and didnt feel a thing but my husband said he got really scared because of the amount of blood and how quickly the Drs rushed.

In the past, plenty of women and babies died because of "natural birth". We are so lucky to live in the modern world today and have options and choices.

I have friends who never used any pain relief during labour and they are very proud of it. Good for them. However I have no regrets to have chosen epidural and do not think my experieces arw less than others because they are less natutal.

I guess a "natural" birth strictly is a vaginal birth (the way nature intended) but it can be an uncomfortable phrase for women who have had a c section, although obviously they are very common these days.

I'm another with a mother with an opinion about how I gave birth. When I was first pregnant I said I probably didn't want an epidural but I'd have one if I felt I needed it at the time. She said "well, I never needed one so I expect you'll be brave enough not to have one".... I said it wasn't really about bravery but apparently the expectation was that I should birth the exact way she did. Needless to say, I declined the offer to have her as my birth partner and I didn't say when I went into hospital.

As it was, I had the "natural" water birth with just gas and air. Apart from a jab of pethidine in early labour so I could get a little sleep. My mum said she was "surprised" I had that as it can affect the baby.

Next time I won't be discussing it. And if I have an epidural next time because it's a different labour and I need it, I probably won't let on...

Women judging women is a result of the patriarchal system, and how society works in regard to women and the impossible standards we have to live up too. People judge other people to make themselves feel better, if women didn't already feel pressure to be a certain way they wouldn't feel the need to judge others.
It's a pretty efficient system really. Well done to the men who crafted it!

There's nothing wrong with having an epidural whatsoever, and it certainly hasn't affected your daughter. You can happily move on from this knowing you did nothing wrong. Clearly your mum has her own issues around this.

Personally, I find that my unmedicated vaginal births are something I keep very quiet about.

I'm sure it's already been said, but there is no such thing as a "natural birth" - regardless of the method of delivery, all births are natural. It's vaginal or c-section. Even with vaginal births, there can be intervention and sometimes referred to as "assisted".

I've had a c-section, then a vaginal. I hate it when people refer to my vaginal birth as "normal" or "natural".

Oh ey, women could ‘choose’ to die or let the baby die rather than have any intervention 🤷‍♀️. Better a natural death than an unnatural birth I suppose?

I had g&a &diamorphine and then a thankfully a spinal before a second degree tear, an episiotomy and forceps. Flipping baby was stuck sideways and I’d been in labour for 30 odd hours. My poor drugged baby… came out without a mark on him, and was breastfeeding like a beast within half an hour (and carried on for 2 years!). I spent less than 24 hours in hospital post delivery and healed without any issue.

I've no idea what a "natural birth" is.

Where I live, there's a C-section, which about 20% of women have, there's a vaginal birth with epidural, which about 75% of women have, and there's a vaginal birth without epidural, which only crazy women have.

😅

They also don't use gas and air for childbirth where I am because they think it's completely pointless when real pain relief is available, but I have had gas and air in A&E whilst having stitches and let me tell you, you are not missing anything at all.

Babies aren't "born drugged" after an epidural!

I've had two epidurals, one which was topped up to the max so I could have an emergency C-section and one which pretty much wore off completely by the time I came to push.

Neither of my babies were "born drugged" and I breastfed both of them almost immediately.

Loved my epidural, and if I had another one I would chose the same route. Your choices are your business. I have found the judgiest people to be women, nasty bitches some of them. None of your mother´s business. She did it her way you did it yours. And when my 5 year old stands by another 5 year old, you can´t tell the difference.

During my first and only pregnancy 30 years ago I attended 'natural birth' classes. In the event I was induced, epidural, forceps, babe was born with cord around their neck and very blue. My non 'natural' birth made me feel very guilty which gave me PND. This child is now a very happy adult and lecturer at a world class university. People making judgements about other mothers choices are ignorant arseholes who cause harm to other women's mental health and should just fuck right off with their utterly pathetic competition. Tell your mum to do one.

I was all for a natural birth, had the hypnosis cds etc. My body disagreed when the time came, i was induced, and i needed the epidural STAT! Have to say, i've no regrets over any of it, i made a plan, it didn't work out, same as so many things in life. Imo women spend way too much time beating themselves up about stuff that's not their fault.

Giving birth is giving birth. It doesn't matter a jot how your baby gets here. The only thing that all births have in common is that they are bloody painful. How you get through that pain is no one else's business except yours.

@MargotBamborough "and there's a vaginal birth without epidural, which only crazy women have."

And that attitude is exactly why I never tell anyone my birth story....