# What exactly is considered a natural birth?



## babyjan

Is using gas and air only still classed as natural birth? Or pethidine, meptid etc...I ask because was reading some other forums online with many women in disagreement :flower:


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## Savannah11

I consider myself to of had a natural birth - i used the TENS machine and water... However I think it's a personal opinion thing? I would still consider it a natural birth if gas and air was used x


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## cupcake23

I say I had a natural birth just using gas & air, it only stays in the body for such a short time, opiates I'm unsure of to be honest... If people want to be more specific they need to say it was an unmedicated birth instead.


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## DaisyDreamer

There is unmedicated birth or intervention free birth, both would be considered natural. I mostly consider a vaginal naturally progressing labor with opiate free pain relief choices to be natural some might disagree though


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## mum140381

i would say no pain relief as in drugs and nvd i have never managed to do it i have only used gas and air however x


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## vermeil

A natural birth is whatever you think it is... it really doesn't matter what others think. (I personally don't really 'get' why some people want them but I have many friends for whom it was really important and I respected their wish and helped them have their dream birth whatever that was for them!)


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## Rhi_Rhi1

I have always been under the impression it is a birth with no pain relief. I.e not even gas and air. etc. No idea really haha. I would consider both my births quite natural but i had pethidine for one and nothing at all for the other. I have actually had people try to tell me i didn't have a natural birth with my youngest because i had taken some paracetamol. Riiiiight haha.


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## Pearls18

As above I think I it's a personal thing, I would call my first natural (water birth but with gas and air) but my second birth I had nothing so I suppose I would say that was completely unmedicated? I can understand people classing anything less than an epidural as natural.


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## catty

I class both my births as 'natural' births as I gave birth to both of them out of my vagina with no interventions. I had morphine with first and gas and air with second. I wouldn't say if had an unmedicated birth though. I seen a woman say she had an unmedicated natural birth as the epidural ran out before she pushed, to me that is not what is describe as unmedicated.


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## loeylo

I don't really think it matters tbh. Whatever you feel comfortable with. I wanted "natural" unmedicated using hypnobirthing and the birthing pool but ended up being induced (not through choice or for being overdue, because of a change in movement) then I ended up with paracetamol, dihydrocodeine, g&a, diamorphine (which I was dead against! Lol!) and an emergency c-section. Literally the opposite of my birth plan, but I don't think I would have had as much if I wasn't induced, it was a slippery slope of interference. 

I wouldn't get hung up on what's natural and what isn't, instead focus on what you feel comfortable with. Ultimately no one else cares what sort of birth you have.


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## OnErth&InHvn

Natural to me means no meds or much intervention


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## Pearls18

mommommom said:


> a home birth i think

You can still have medication at a home birth though (gas&air and diamorphine in the UK) and no medication whatsoever in a hospital so I'm not sure what the location would have to do with it (I've experienced both locations for birthing).


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## minties

If it came out of your vagina, that seems pretty natural to me! I've only had c-sections.


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## Momofmany7

minties said:


> If it came out of your vagina, that seems pretty natural to me! I've only had c-sections.

:haha:


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## NDH

To me, a natural birth is one without drugs or assisted delivery. If either are present I would simply describe it as a vaginal birth. My first was an induction with syntocinon but otherwise drug free, but I still hesitate to describe it as a natural birth as syntocinon contractions are anything but natural. 

I've started to use "unhindered" to describe what I would consider to be a truly natural birth - not just no drugs or instrument assisted delivery, but when the mom is able to move completely freely as she chooses and not subject to policies and procedures or other outside views of how she should birth. Being bed-bound and having constant fetal monitoring isn't terribly natural even if one does go drug free and birth without instrument assistance.

But it's all semantics really, and the definition is so variable from person to person. Basically it can mean anything from anything other than a cesarean, to unhindered, and everything in between. The majority of people I think would consider natural birth to be vaginal birth without an epidural.


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## LoraLoo

minties said:


> If it came out of your vagina, that seems pretty natural to me! I've only had c-sections.

Lol yes, this exactly. A natural birth is a vaginal birth to me regardless of mecication etc.


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## Midnight_Fairy

Same as ^


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## JT2013

I had a drug free fairly fast progressing labour, with most of the time spent in water. BUT I ended up with ventouse because I basically didn't have the stamina to push him the final bit down and he was looking slightly to the right which made it harder.

So if we're being picky I had a natural labour and an assisted birth! (PS ventouse in my case was super easy, one push with it on, baby had no marks and I didn't need an episiotomy or any pain relief for during the procedure, so in my head it isn't traumatic or anything, my only regret is that no one told me to get up off my back to try that instead!).


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