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

The judgement is a real thing though. And i suppose hackles get raised betimes. Imho, mum safe, baby safe, job well done. And it's nobody elses business.

What annoys me about this is that every birth is different. An induction/back to back baby can be more painful than a reasonably speedy birth, but again it depends doesn’t it. Positioning, environment, baby size, psychological state. There’s so much to it. You do what you need to do for each unique birth. It doesn’t define you overall.

Exactly. It’s fucking embarrassing for a grown adult tbh.

I would say a natural birth would be defined by spontaneously going in to labour, no pain relief and no medical assistance. Otherwise, I would say vaginal birth or c section.

Most people were simply talking about their experiences that some (not all) of those who go unmedicated can be judgemental and assume it's simply because someone didn't try 'hard enough'.

OP even started this thread to begin with because her own mother judged her.

I had midwives trying to shame me for wanting an epidural and having no interest in gas & air and they are supposed to be professionals.

Glad someone said it.

there is so much pressure on women to have a “drug free” birth, if you like. People that do it without pain meds seem to feel they are above others I have found (Ofcourse this doesn’t apply to all). I had epidurals with both of mine and have requested it for my third. You wouldn’t brag about not needing pain relief if you broke your leg - why? Because it’s an insane amount of pain and should be medicated.
birth is the same imo.

still have no idea what people mean when they say natural birth. I assume they meant to medical intervention so C sec.

I think you're adding a few words there for dramatic effect.

I did use the word crazy, but as I explained a couple of times, I was describing the attitude where I live towards women who decline pain relief in labour.

I don't think women who want an unmedicated birth are crazy. But I am curious about why. If it's because you want a home birth, that's a very good reason. If it's because you think your baby will be born drugged, that's fake news and you are suffering for no reason.

They gave me two paracetamol and begrudgingly sent a student in to see if I was contracting or just having “period pains” when I’d buzzed about 8 times and was rolling around in pain after being induced.

Turns out I was having 7 moderate to strong contractions lasting between 30 seconds and 2 minutes within a 10 minute period. So basically non stop agony for six hours, and they thought I needed two paracetamols. They eventually gave me gas and air and removed my pessary

Can we all just agree to agree that whatever birth suits us is fine?

It's infuriating.

I bet if men had to give birth, they'd be offered more than paracetamol!

@MargotBamborough "I think you're adding a few words there for dramatic effect."

I'm not, you know. Both martyr and competitive have been used several times. I half withdraw "crazy woman" now you've added context. But all the "why would you DO that??" posts do kind of suggest that it is a bit of a theme!

Individually, absolutely.

That also needs to be the case with healthcare professionals, hospitals, birthing classes etc as opposed to the current attitude of unmedicated is best and epidural is a last resort, it's 'giving in'.

A healthy baby is ideal. That's it.

We don't have gas & air where I live either. I tried for natural birth but things went wrong. I had fentanyl injections at first, then it went to epidural and then to emergency c-section. I've only had 1 natural out of my 4. I do prefer it but things usually don't go as planned. No one can have an opinion on your birth. Only you knew what it was like and what you needed. We're lucky to live in a time and place where we have options.

No one cares how you or your baby came into the world. No one puts it on their c v .
You dont get extra anything whichever way.

Healthy baby but also non traumatised mum, which is hard as one in three women experience birth trauma. A lot of women wanting natural are doing it to avoid trauma.

Of course, non traumatised mum too.

Again, it goes back to personal preference and previous experience. One of the reasons why I wanted an epidural is because giving birth unmedicated sounds traumatic to me and my epidural birth was lovely and not at all traumatic.

Others will obviously have a different experience.

This I agree with.

I think if we could all agree - healthy baby and untraumatised mum are the targets - it's a short step to acknowledge that that looks different for everyone.

I'm going for ELCS for my second. And yes, the main reason is because I'm utterly traumatised by my failed induction and never want to risk that again. The medical team all agree that it's a perfectly ok option in terms of medical risk, including my anaesthesia plan. But for me my no1 goal is preventing further trauma.

I've heard of other mums opting for VBAC for similar reasons, eg they hated the c-section recovery period.

So reducing trauma, as a goal in birth choices, I'm fully signed up for, regardless of the means.

I'm dead against any argument about birth choices affecting breastfeeding though (which is one of the pro-natural-birth arguments I hear a lot).

On the small sample size of the mums I know, it's almost an inverse correlation between smoothness of birth and duration of BF.

Don't get me wrong, formula is a miracle and is a great option. But it's just threat of BF failing seems to be used to scare mums into declining birth interventions that would make their births easier

Of course! Personally epidural terrifies me as does the idea of forceps and interventions (way more common with epidural) so that’s why it’s not for me. But totally get that for others it helps.

It’s also not true! so much more than that affects breastfeeding. I’m just glad they’ve stopped limited c sections purely for the numbers.

Correlation does not equal causation.

Epidurals are associated with difficult births in the UK because as a general rule only women who are already having a difficult labour tend to get one. Women who are having a straightforward labour are encouraged to just make do with gas and air.

If epidurals actually increased the likelihood of these interventions then we would expect to see a lot more of them in countries where epidurals are very common. The statistics simply don't back this theory up.

From what I understand, with how epidurals work now that is no longer the case as they aren't as strong as they used to be.

I felt the pressure when I need to push, it was like it just took the edge off. I felt something but not everything.

This is a good point too.

My labour was straightforward and on the quicker side for a first time mum and like I've mentioned already, I had midwives trying to convince me to ''manage'' and just agree to paracetamol and gas & air but I wasn't having it.

I do wonder how many first timers just suffer in silence because they don't feel as confident speaking up.

It’s not weird to avoid pain.
Does she take paracetamol for a headache?

Same here. I felt the urge to push very strongly.

Comments like this are so annoying. Don’t comment on those who ask for meds but for those of us who choose not to and are lucky enough not to have that urge why would we want a prize. An epidural is an injection in the back isn’t it? No thanks.

Only if it meant saving me or my baby or if the pain was too much to handle.