My next New York City Moms blog post is up and running!
It’s called Natural Birth, Duggar Style. Take a look!
This should generate some interesting comments (or heated discussion?). What do you think, do you feel — like me — that more women could achieve a natural birth if they had educated themselves more about how the hospital is set up to push you into c-sections and believed more strongly in their ability to give birth naturally (hey, I did it, and I am no superwoman)?
Did you have an epidural or a C-section? What was your experience? Were you happy with your birth experience? Would you do anything differently the next time? I appreciate your input, because I want all of us to learn from each other. Knowledge is power!
Resources:
NYC Doula Services — Affordable, experienced, low-fee doulas
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I had 2 home births. Animals don’t go to the hospital and they seem to be just fine most of the time. I look at birth as natural and normal. I do think medicine has it’s place, just not in every single birth! The cesarian rate is way too high!
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I had both an epidural (planned) and a c-section (unplanned), but my pregnancy and delivery were complicated by some serious medical issues that meant that I am not eligible to make all of the same birthing choices that most women can. That said, here are my thoughts.
I really appreciate that you mention that there is a bit of luck in achieving a natural labor and I think that maybe instead of so much emphasis on entirely drug-free, we should put the emphasis on tying the intervention to a need rather than a popular culture image. For example, an epidural after you’ve been in labor for days and are stalled is a slightly different scenario than “hook me up the minute I walk in.” But sometimes these get lumped together. There is grey area that is sometimes ignored.
One of the purely selfish reasons I wish epidural and c-section rates would drop is that they are now so high, that as someone who truly had medical complications and an emergency c-section, I find most people don’t believe me that it was necessary. C-section has now become synonymous for “too many interventions” “bad OB” etc and that make healing (emotionally and physically) much harder. I’m not saying that those women are to blame for their c-sections, but not only have we created a culture that sees c-sections as normal, but we have also created a counter-culture that sometimes alienates women who are not free to choose a drug-free homebirth (be it economic, medical, or other reasons).
I am so very thankful for all of the medical advances we now have available to us. I just wish that we didn’t need to use them so much. I do believe that a lot of interventions are unnecessary and that education (of women, their partners, their medical providers, their childbirth educators) and normalization of natural birth could go a long way to lessen their use. I believe that the history of childbirth is so muddled with bad information and scare tactics, much of which is still believed today that it limits our ability to make good choices about birth. I believe women should have a choice in how they labor, how they deliver, and where, but these choices should be based on better information than many are currently given.
I had 3 c-sections. I will always wonder if I could have done it, but I will never know.
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Glad to see so many great post about birth experiences. My Natural Birth experience led me to write an eBook with my husband, titled “The Psychology of Natural Childbirth.” I include 12 Steps I followed that led to a successful natural birth with my first son that I can look back on positively. Women don’t need birth medication… they truly need birth education.
If we are blessed with another child, we will definitely go the homebirth route. With our son, I labored at home for quite a while then we went to the hospital. Any woman who is uneducated about the procedures performed in U.S. hospitals can easily be swayed into unnecessary interventions that complicate labor. Chiropractic adjustments and exercise definitely helped my body prepare for the labor marathon!
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