Am I crazy for wanting a natural child birth?

[Evianontoast]

Hi. I'm 31 weeks and starting to think about my birth plan with my
first baby. I've never really been one for taking any kind of drugs - I don't even take paracetamol (I also don't drink alcohol or caffeine, and haven't done for years, even before I was pregnant. Not really sure why, I just don't like the idea of it).

I really feel like I'd feel better going in to birth with a plan to not have any pain relief if I can help it. I understand that many people feel this way and end up with the pain relief in the end (thank goodness it's available if you need it). But whenever it comes up in conversation with anyone, I get the "just you wait!" attitude.

Am I being completely naive? I really think I can do it without it but maybe that's just first time mum naivety? Anyone else do it with no drugs? Do you regret it/ are you glad you did it?

Thanks in advance.

I wanted a drug free water birth but luckily I kept an open mind because my birth did not go as expected. I ended up with meconium in my waters and DS was very stressed, so they had to speed up the birth with hormones.

The pain was unbelievable because labour was forced, so I resorted to an epidural and thank god I did because I think I would’ve passed out!

It’s great you want to go drug free and power to you but I’d definitely recommend being aware of pain relief options and keeping an open mind

Side note but gas and air did nothing for me (just made me feel extremely high and spaced out but didn’t take the pain away). I wish I’d skipped the gas and just gone for the epidural!

I had a bit of gas and air for the final stages of my first birth and nothing at all for my second. The first was pretty gruelling and I did momentarily consider something more than gas and air but just after that I started pushing and forgot all about it. You should for sure keep an open mind about it — honestly, the contractions between 7cm and full dilation were a lot more painful than I expected and if one were to get stuck in that stage for a very long time I think it would be pretty tough —but if you have a fairly straightforward birth it is doable.

I had this mindset. It’s completely your choice but I would just say go in with an open mind. Things can go wrong or not go to plan and it’s ok to say yes to things to help the birth along. I wanted a completely natural birth but ended up begging for an epidural after an induction. The contractions were the worst pain I have ever felt and I’ve done some pretty fucked up things.

Oh, and as @Aarti96 says, be prepared for gas and air to do nothing very much for your pain. It mostly just made me feel dizzy and weird and I didn’t use it much.

@RacketeerRalph

In a word - yes. I'm really not sure why it's something to aspire to!

same. I don't get it either. I'm no better for having given birth with nothing but crunching DH's hand to bone powder and no worse for needing epidurals, foreceps delivery, ELSC.

there are no medals given.

when I had DC7 I had written "EPIDURAL" with big red letters on every page of my birth plan. MW was a star. she paged through it then turned to me and asked "so, have you thought about pain relief?"
we both burst out laughing 🤣🤣🤣
take the drugs, the whole drugs and nothing but the drugs

I did for middle birth

It was good, painful of course, different to the two others

I let myself see how I felt during contraction phase

Birth plans are a joke really - nobody can predict what labour will be like, especially with your first. I had one epidural labour and two natural (too fast for pain relief). With epidural, I was calmer and less stressed but suffered more pain afterwards. Either way, it is hard to predict what drugs or help you or baby may need

@Roseandgeranium

Oh, and as *@Aarti96* says, be prepared for gas and air to do nothing very much for your pain. It mostly just made me feel dizzy and weird and I didn’t use it much.

That’s only a possibility though. I barely used it as I said, but my mum used it for all three of her labours and can’t talk highly enough of it. She thought it was brilliant and worked wonders, even with me and I was a back to back baby.

Yes.

Not crazy at all. I didn’t want anything either except gas and air but was up for an epidural if needed. Didn’t want to be induced or have a sweep or pethadine
As it was I stayed at home as long as possible and my baby came within 2 hours of being in the hospital. No time for anything other than gas and air. It was an amazing experience and the pain was only ramped up towards the end at transition. Obviously the ring of fire burned for a bit but was so focused on pushing down at that stage.
Go for a water birth if you can and aim for no pain relief / intervention. I would really really recommend reading a good hypnobirthing book as i found that really useful to keep in mind

when I had DC7 I had written "EPIDURAL" with big red letters on every page of my birth plan

Were you given something to fill out for a birth plan then? I can’t imagine pages of a birth plan. I’m not sure I wrote one.

I had one drug free and one last minute epidural when it was clear that back to back presentation really wasn’t working and ventouse was needed.

Things that helped me:
Confidence in my body. I often thought about a packed football stadium and thought ‘each of these people is the result of a woman giving birth’
Managing fear of pain. I told myself that whatever happened, it would come to an end, and that the choice was always mine to ask for pain relief at any time.

TENS machine. I got my endorphins high with early Labour TENS use.

Keeping upright, staying active. Leaning forwards when standing or kneeling during contractions. Kneeling on the sofa leaning over the back, kneeling on the stairs, etc.

Pool. Did the whole mid section of Labour in a pool, on my knees, leaning forwards on the rim.

Focus and breathing. I just ‘went into myself’ and didn’t allow chatting and interference around me. Breathing in through my mouth and going ‘huuurghhh’ on the out breath as things got intense.

Expected it to be hard work, like hiking up a mountain, and visualising my body doing hard muscular productive work.

The midwives offered G&A but I didn’t want to lose my own focus and rhythm so said no, I was ok anyway.

Asked for an epidural when required to lie on my back with a back to back baby, and when they gave me the drip to increase contraction intensity.I was very much in agreement that ventouse was needed and chose epidural, so felt calm and supported.

At no time was I in anything that I would describe as acute or unbearable pain.

Good luck OP, and enjoy your baby.

ring of fire

my whole reproductive system just cringed at the memories.
"you forget the pain" my arse

I had the same idea. My eldest was back to back though and, after 3 days of non productive but really painful, contractions, I had pethidine and an epidural. I hated that epidural - felt so constrained not being able to move - but there's absolutely no way i could have done it without it. I was exhausted.

My second was a home birth with nothing but a Tens machine. It was a million times better.

But they were two completely different labours so there's no way I could compare them.

Just have an open mind and see how you feel at the time. It's not a failure to need drugs. Neither are there any medals handed out for doing it drug free.

I think it's fine to plan for that, but don't give yourself a hard time if that's not how it works out.

I would massively recommend a TENS machine, whether it genuinely helps or whether it's a bit of a placebo because you have some control over it I have no idea, but it definitely helped for me.

The 'just you wait' brigade and the 'I barely even noticed the pain' brigade are just as bad as each other - you really won't know what you're going to do until it happens.

(P.S I was at home except for the ventouse episode for one birth: transferred late on second stage)

By all means state you are hoping for minimal intervention but remember it's preferences you are stating. Also just because your birth plan says no drugs that doesn't mean you can't change your mind on the day. It's not a contract you're signing. Try and keep your feet on the ground and remember it's always good to be adaptable. It's only after baby is born that you can truly know you had a "low risk" pregnancy and birth.

Good luck. Hope it all goes perfectly and you have the birth experience you are hoping for

I’m hoping for a drug free birth with my second (due 20th December). With my first I had pethidine and it didn’t work for me, I hated how it made me feel. I had a horrendous back to back labour which is supposedly more painful. I know I can do it this time and I know what to expect which helps.

I’d recommend having a look at the naked doula on Instagram who is very empowering. She does recommend doing tonnes of research, even for options you’re not considering for those just in case scenarios. Good luck!

@SickAndTiredAgain

must have been my notes. do you know what I mean?
there were some pages inside where you could ponder about your potential fate.
I just wrote "Epidural" on every page.

I think it’s fine to consider

I also take very little medication. I guess a bad headache I usually just wait it out, and it eventually goes.
Same happened with birth, waited out to see if it got worse, and by that point Ds was born without anything.
Maybe I do have high pain threshold, but how do you know?

I've just had one with a grand total of four paracetamol, a TENs for a bit and some gas and air for about half an hour before pushing. I didn't enjoy it half as much as I did the one where I had an epidural, if I'm honest, although the recovery was a lot easier.

Definitely keep an open mind, I wanted drugs this time again but didn't have time, you never know what you're going to get!

I really needed the epidural, so was quite thankful it was available. I'd leave it open as an option and if you don't need it, all the better.

Good luck.

Not crazy no. But you do need to be realistic - you have a 50% ish chance of a spontaneous VB without instruments or emcs.

Also remember that there are no prizes for not accepting pain relief, and in some instances pain relief can help you achieve a VB - for example conserving energy during a long labour by having a nap & epidural.

Us battle hardened forceps/pain relief/emcs mums do giggle a bit when FTMs wax lyrical about natural childbirth, because you don’t realise how out of your hands most of it is until it happens.

But there’s no harm aiming for your own preference, just be open minded.

I agree about birth plans being a joke.

First baby I carefully typed up a birth plan, on two sides of A4, which I gave to midwives when I arrived, I don't think they gave it more than a cursory glance, and once labour intensified I couldn't have cared less what I'd "planned" for.

Second baby, my birth plan was on a post it note, as follows:

1. Make plan
2. Give birth

I now realise that making a birth plan is like knowing in advance that you're going to be in a car accident but you have no idea how bad it's going to be - it could be someone opening their car door onto yours, it could be a little bump from behind at 5mph, or it could be a lethal head on collision at 70mph. It's like knowing as little as that, and making a plan deciding how much assistance you want from emergency services, what kind of pain relief you'll want them to administer, whether you'll want your car towed or not, etc. Of course, you'd hope for the best that it won't be anything major, just a little ding and that you'll be driving yourself home in time for tea. But not knowing exactly what will happen, you'd be mad to rule out the assistance and the pain relief in advance...

Mine were drug free; I had a slight backache, the midwives wouldn't believe I was in labour, wasn't examined, told I could go home as nothing was going on, and 30 minutes later gave birth with no pain relief. There seems to be an idea that having a backache labour is more painful, but I didn't find it so. You don't know how painful; it will be so keep an open mind. I didn't do anything special to prepare; it just happened that way.