in not fully understanding 'natural' birth

[edd021208]

A lot of mums I know talk about how they had 'all natural' births but then talk about how fantastic they found using gas and air .....I've no big issue one way or another (had epidurals) but wonder if using gas and air constitutes an 'all natural' birth?

Aw, come on TotallyUnheardOf- even I've had a filling without pain relief

But wisdom teeth extraction? Christ on a bike, that's got to smart a bit.

Ah, I am a wuss with dentistry.

However, did I mention (in a non-boasty way) I had a baby with no pain relief?

Not sure what that says about the relative sensitivity of my mouth and my fanjo. [Mind boggles!]

i used natural on another thread when i meant spontanious - i knew i was using the wrong word.

natural to me, means not a section.
nothing to do with pain relief.

and i feel bloody lucky that my 2 children were easy births requiring little or nothing in the way of pain relief.
lucky
not judgemental of others
in awe of others and what they have gone through

i planned to have every kind of pain relief going, but as i was lucky i didnt need it.

I have had wisdom teeth out without a general anaesthetic, and two births with no pain relief. I am a considerably better person than all of yow

I did cry when I tried to tweeze a hair in my nostril though.

My sister had an 'all natural' birth - but only cos her second one came so fast it was practically born in the ambulance. Despite already having had one she thought the contractions were indigestion until the baby was imminent. She laughs about it now rather than being smug in any way - and says the first one was nothing like so easy.

At my ante-natal classes the midwives told us that some women loved G&A but quite a few felt sick on it - so I reckon both reactions totally 'normal'

I would class 'natural' birth as no intervention at all.

To answer the OP : I think a purist would use 'natural birth' to mean a birth that happens spontaneously and with no pain relief or intervention.

MOST women would probably use the term to describe a birth where either no pain relief, or just gas and air, water, massage etc are used - the basis for this being that these are non-invasive methods, they don't involve sticking needles in you and injecting drugs or numbing your body up.

But I don't think you really wanted to know that did you OP - I think you were looking to be contentious

i think 'natural' birth always used to mean 'not a cs' i've had an induction,every drug known to man,epidural,ventouse,forceps,injection to deliver placenta birth followed by one where i had nothing-
no water,no tens machine,no gas and air,no stitches,nothing.
i confess to feeling like i needed a little something to take the edge off the contractions at the end but didn't get anything.
after the shit storm of my first birth i decided to try and mentally downplay the pains so that i wasn't screaming for drugs immediately-it was ok, i don't think i deserve a medal-and i am so not hard/tough or lentil weavey-I managed to enormously piss off those in my antenatal group who were desperate for whale song and water....

'Natural' is a silly word that shouldn't really be used around anything we do, I reckon.

Well op you have your answer 'natural' birth, means something different to different people. Sorted.

Agree 'natural' is a silly term to use, as anyone not having a 'natural' birth would therefore have an 'unnatural' birth! (visions of aliens bursting through stomachs)

Does anyone give a damn as long as one ends up with a healthy baby and healthy mum?

jesus violet i take offence to ANY methods of pain relief at all,massage/tens being allowed in a totally 'natural' birth...
jesus,does it matter?

I had my first birth 24hrs with pethadine and I can see why some get offended. I was really upset and felt like a failure for having the drugs to stop my pain knowing they might harm my baby and I got really offended the first time I was told I didn't have a natural birth.

On dd I had a 10 hour on gas and air only I was under a natural birth only this allowed g+a as she said it wasn't really considered a drug and a physiological 3rd stage as the birth is over however the mw was unable to examine me more than once every 6hrs unable to break my waters or use any instruments no epistomy's but I could tear if she had too do any of these apparently my birth was unnatural. However in some of these cases e.g the epistomy to not do it for a natural birth could cause alot of damage.

It wasn't about having a natural birth for me it was about what was the quickest recovery as I hate being ill and sore and would prefer one day of agony than weeks of pain it is all about what suits each person and you have to do what is right for you and don't worry about anyone else.

I have to admit I felt v proud after both my births but I would never think I was better than anyone else I didn't suffer in agony to compete I did it because I wanted to know I could do it does that make sense. I recovered quicker after the natural birth and felt better mentally I would do natural again however I would not have the gas and air as it made me be sick the only way it helped with pain was it distracted me while I was puffing on it .

I think we're all in danger of getting away from the real issue here...

...Has anybody had a tooth out -wisdom or otherwise-without any kind of pain relief?

(BoF- You can't go in my endurance hall of fame until you confirm you had no local anaesthetic either )

i've always taken 'natural' to mean 'the way nature intended' IE - out the fanjo.

It doesnt cover epidural or anything else.. merely the method of birth.. fanjo or catflap!

tethersend - on the real issue - I once had a dentist who was really mean with the amt of (?novocain) in the injection on the grounds that 'you have to go back to work afterwards'. After suffering horrible pain I stopped him and assured him that I really did not care if I dribbled over my work and/or colleagues for the rest of the day...

No, I would not have drilling/filling or extracting without any kind of pain relief...the very thought ....argh...

Weird dentist, usually it's lignocaine, unless american. It wouldn't affect you going to work and yes it's your choise.

Re the 'natural' birth I had a DIY homebirth 2nd time, much better than induction, but both felt relatively natural.

I've had a particularly evil wisdom tooth out without pain relief (not by choice - a student dentist cocked up the anaesthesia so I felt the cutting, the wrenching and the stitching).

I'm currently pregnant with #1. Please, someone, tell me that when baby erupts in about 15 weeks it is going to hurt less than that tooth? Anyone?

Oh bugger.

Sorry, slushy, but "felt like a failure" for having pain relief, and "feeling proud" after the births are exactly the sort of statements that perpetuate the myth that pain relief is Bad, whereas gritting your teeth is Good.

I just do not see the issue. If anybody had attempted to deny me my epidurals, I would have resorted to violence. My body, my baby, my choice. Anyone else wants to do it their way, fine. Up to them.
Where the hell does the word "failure" come into it?

And if anyone started to boast tell me that they'd had a natural birth, my response would be "And....?" So what? Why is it relevant? Am I supposed to hand out 'well done' stickers?

A lot of people on here have wheeled out their own issues in attacking the OP; she asked a perfectly reasonable question in a reasonable way.

Personally, I quite dislike the phrase "natural birth". Not just because it's used in a judgemental way (by SOME people) but also because it doesn't actually mean anything specific.

The only time I find it tolerable is when it's used as a euphenism for 'vaginal' birth (because okay, I can understand some people find it difficult to say the word 'vaginal').

Otherwise the phrase doesn't mean anything ; you always have to ask the person who used the phrase what they meant by it to have a clue what they meant by it.

I have an identity crisis I went au naturelle first time - I laughed in the face of gas and air. Second time I had failed induction, crash section, the full monty. Am I half natural ?

ps - For the avoidance of doubt, I have no interest in how/why or where any other woman gave birth to their child.

Tethersend- I just tied some string to the tooth, the other end to the door handle, and slammed it hard...simple!

Not really. I wonder if the technique would work for childbirth though?

I have had fillings without a local - that was worse than giving birth...I didn't go back to the dentist for ten years, such was my trauma!

I don't get the medal though as it is hard enough to drag me to the dentist let alone have a tooth out 'natural' I am in awe of those with enough courage to endure such torture.

Most of us get a medal whether section natural or all the drugs under the sun it is called a baby and as long as baby is healthy we still get the same result regardless.

where I live the women compete for the worst birth it is actually funny to hear them arguing who had more stitches and then the one with the least trying to say that hers were in a more painful place or that graze's sting more than tear's .

Serennos - when dh was born, mil had mild grumbling backache up to the start of the second stage, which lasted around an hour. I've heard of other people having labours like that too.

At least when the baby comes, you aren't going to have someone's hands in your mouth (though you will occasionally have someone's hand in another orifice), so you will at least be able to articulate when it hurts. You'll also know what pain relief is available, and be able to ask for what you think will help.

It did hurt when I gave birth, and I had long labours, but I did it three times, which says something.

FWIW, I looooove the gas and air. My only complaint about it is that they wouldn't let me take it home from the hospital - I reckon a few deep breaths of gas and air would have helped a whole lot when it came to dealing with the terrible twos, or grumpy teenagers etc etc!

Good luck for 15 weeks hence, and I have to say that I loved your post - especially the last sentence.