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

You can say no to them though.

At my 40 week appointment my doctor asked me if I wanted her to check my cervix, and when I said yes, she then asked if I would like her to perform a membrane sweep if it was possible, and that she preferred to ask before she had her hand up the patient's vagina. I said yes to the sweep and was delighted that I went into labour the next day. Would definitely have one again if I ever have a third child.

I can't remember how many vaginal exams I had during labour but it wasn't that many and I know I proactively asked for at least one to see how things were progressing.

Yes, I know you can say no to sweeps. You can also say no to vaginal exams for dilation during labour as well. Most interventions you do have a chance to consent.

To be honest, I don't get the sense that women are particularly frightened of childbirth where I live, and I think it's because nearly everyone has an epidural as part of their birth plan.

In the UK I think women are genuinely led to believe that giving birth without pain relief is "better", which means they will try to suffer through labour without an epidural and even in some cases are denied an epidural when they ask for one. There are a lot of scare stories about how epidurals increase the likelihood of other interventions which I don't think are backed up by reliable data at all.

Where I live, the usual way of doing things is that if you go into labour spontaneously you labour at home until you feel things are really ramping up or you want pain relief, then you go in and get checked out and then you get the epidural and relax until it's time to push. If you don't go into labour spontaneously by 41 weeks then the usual protocol is that you get induced and they usually do the epidural before the hormone drip.

There doesn't seem to be the same terror about childbirth here, and there don't seem to be as many women suffering from birth trauma. I think it's because pain relief is encouraged, not frowned upon.

The only woman I know here who had a really traumatic birth went from 0-10 in 20 minutes and didn't have time for an epidural.

I agree some smug mums put it down to being better prepared, great prenatal habits, their superior minds/breathing and so on. They’re just blind to their own privilege.

@Gettingbysomehow "I can't stand all this "natural" childbirth stuff. I wouldn't dream of it. I insisted on having an epidural." Absolutely fine for you-but why are you not able to stand anyone who wants something different?

There is definitely the feeling of judgement over making pain relief choices, it seems to be the "norm" is gas and air and anything else is looked down upon by some (and sadly the some I mean seem to be other women).

Why do we choose to go through the pain of labour when there are sufficient options available to manage the pain? Would we have any other medical practice without pain relief just for the sake of it? I know it's each to their own, as it should be, but I just wonder how many women would be open to things such as epidurals if there wasn't any pressure regarding birth choices.

@SouthLondonMum22 "Some are convinced that they can control what happens during birth and do act superior that they were able to have an unmedicated birth."

Well, you can to a certain extent. Of course you can.

@pigsDOfly
I had no pain relief at all with the last two as they were born so quickly there wasn't even time for gas and air but in my head, I don't see their births as any different from the first for which I had an induction and forceps. All I know is that because of the speed of the second two they were a hell of a lot easier and joyful than the first.

Same here. The births I had that were ‘natural’ as in unmedicated, no interventions and vaginal were much easier and a lot less painful with far milder birth injuries than the induction I had that then required forceps, an episotomy that then tore further so I was ripped front to back…I suffered far more in that birth. It is what I was getting at earlier in the thread that in my option mum suffers more when she needs interventions than when she can do a ‘natural’ birth both during and afterwards.

I really had to insist on going straight to the epidural. It's like it is seen as the last option if you can't ''manage'' but you should try and make do with paracetamol (I actually laughed when that was offered) and gas & air before ''giving in'' and getting an epidural.

The language around it here certainly doesn't help. Not to mention a midwife trying to tell me I can ''manage'' without one.

I told her I could, but why would I want to?

@crumblylancs "There is definitely the feeling of judgement over making pain relief choices."

Yes. Among other things, those of us who choose to go unmedicated are "crazy people"!

You can't! You can control your response to a situation to a certain extent, but you can't control the medical situation.

To a very limited extent. Most of it is pure luck.

Yes, that's pretty much the attitude here. You could give birth without pain relief but why would you want to?

That was one person. I don't get any sense of judgement from the rest of the posters tbf.

Of course you can't.

You can be calm and breath through labour all you like but if you need a c-section, you need a c-section.

Same with induction
or experiencing back labour instead of the more usual labour pains

Or any other things that absolutely can't be controlled.

I wasn't saying women who choose an unmedicated birth are crazy.

I'm saying that is the attitude where I live, where almost all women have an epidural and things like gas and air simply aren't used because there is pretty much zero demand for them.

A very small number of women here want to try for an unmedicated birth, and this is usually met with scepticism from both the medical profession and from women who have already given birth, who are of the view that epidurals are safe and effective and there are no prizes for managing without.

That’s what I was going to say. It really doesn’t matter, and especially not what your mum says. You and baby are here and well, that’s the priority

I always think of it as no pain relief. I had three precipitous 'natural' labours, including one back to back. I'd have taken any drug I could've got my hands on (and did ask) but there wasn't time. I don't view it in any way a badge of honour, being in agony, if there's no need.

I remember the 'no prizes' argument alright!

I don't think it's crazy at all if that's the woman's choice and she's made it without any pressure or feeling of judgment, on the flip side, think if the reason for choosing no pain relief is because of feeling like they "shouldn't" then that's the problem

Some women get weirdly competitive over this, it stems from the idea that a non medicated birth is better.
Imo all that does is lay the foundations for a motherhood of martyrdom.

Who the F cares what pain relief you used or didn't? Why is this information anyone needs?
When was the last time you discussed pain relief for a headache or muscle injury?

@SouthLondonMum22 "Or any other things that absolutely can't be controlled."
Obviously many things can't be. But some things definitely can.

The vast, vast majority of things can't be controlled.

and the teeny tiny things that can? Don't make much difference.

Again, you can remain calm, practice hypnobirthing etc all you like but that isn't going to prevent an emergency c-section.

It is true though!

And yet, I think the idea that an unmedicated birth is somehow better, which is completely cultural, is still very difficult to resist.

When I had my second child I was trying for a VBAC and I spent most of the night in a bath tub infused with lavender oil, listening to relaxing music and breathing through the contractions, but after more than 12 hours of regular contractions I was still only at 2.5cm.

An epidural was part of my birth plan because I was at increased risk of needing an emergency C-section due to my uterine scar, but I was under no pressure to get an epidural at that time because the midwives on duty overnight said I'd have a better chance of a successful VBAC if I could get to 5cm or so before having the epidural.

As it happened, I asked for the epidural at only 2.5cm because I was getting pretty knackered, thought I was probably in for the long haul, and the contractions had suddenly got much more painful. In retrospect, that was clearly the transition from early to active labour. Completely unexpectedly, I then went from hardly dilated at all to fully dilated and ready to push in about an hour and a half.

It was an absolutely lovely birth and the last hour and a half of it was completely pain free, but I still found myself wondering whether I could have managed to have a completely "natural" birth if I hadn't asked for the epidural when I did, because they probably would have left me alone during that time, and it might have been even quicker without the epidural. If someone had told me at the point I got the epidural that I was less than two hours from the finish line I might well have tried to manage without.

Why?

I honestly don't know.

I have to keep reminding myself that it was a great, largely painless experience, and that that last hour and a half might have been horrifically painful and traumatising without the epidural.

I'm super pro epidural now, and yet the idea that an unmedicated birth is somehow "better" is still really hard to shake off. I think it's because I grew up in the UK and got most of my information about childbirth from UK based sources and that is the prevailing attitude.

I just think it's interesting.

I couldn't care less what other people do it doesn't affect me. What I can't stand is having natural childbirth is best rammed down your throat by all and sundry including medical staff when you know that's not want you want.
I knew I wanted an epidural and I got sick to death of everybody telling me I shouldn't have one. I know my own mind.
Its a good thing I did because my baby got stuck and the interventions needed to get him out would have traumatised me for life had I not had an epidural. I won't go into the gory details here but I was left with a uterine prolapse aged 21, I was pretty much turned inside out, and couldn't sit down for 6 weeks.