So my fellow bump buddies I was watching a baby story today not sure if you have all seen that show before but she was giving birth naturally and I was thinking what if I want an epidural... Then unstaffed to have like a mental panic attack thinking about not being able to move my legs( kind of like a closterphodia (sp) feeling. I was wondering what your ladies thoughts and feeling are towards birth or if you have thought about it yet.
Well since I just gave birth 7 months ago..and its all still pretty fresh in my mind, Id say do not get your heart set on one thing or freak yourself out cause like everyone says..baby chooses.
I have two examples
..
I wanted to go all natural, after reading everything online about all the different pain meds and all the bad things that could go wrong with them for you and baby I just did not want to take that chance! Then I watched a bunch of birthing videos medicated and not..and the natural births looked nice! Plus I think Im pretty strong so I for sure thought I CAN DO THIS!! Well I live in Germany, with the American Military so I had the choice of American Hospital or German and I picked German because they are very pro natural..they even had a birthing pool! and all my friends said at American hospital things like not feeling legs ect. Any who, I went into labor at 11am August 26th, by 1pm I was 1cm and the back labor was intense at that point. Then the walking, breathing, changing positions, massages, ball bouncing was just annoying and not helping AT ALL. I told *+midwife that I just could not do it anymore and she checked...3cm
I freaked out raging about how epidurals can make my baby "high", what if I can not even feel contractions, what if I can not even move to hold my baby after ward! what if it slows down labor and im stuck here longer!!" (all things from offline) She looked at me like I was insane and said "NO, none of these things will happen, epidurals have come a long way. You will be fine" so I gave in and said DO IT. 20 minutes later I had one, wheeling back to labor room my waters broke, 3cm to 8cm was within 40 minutes NO HELP just natural progression and it was HORRIBLE, they would not give me any more doses since it was "too late" . I had pain relief for about 10 minutes then nothing but pain it was "good for you and baby, you need to feel this" I literally offered payment to give me more medicine. The pain became so bad I no longer cared what happened I wanted him out. I asked for foreceps, c-sections,vacuum. My mother had one of us natural and she told me that the pain was so horrible she no longer cared or concentrated on the experience she just wanted it over with and she felt with pain meds it was more relaxed and bonding. I should have listened to her. I had a horrible melt down, I switched from side, to back to all fours to standing up NOTHING helped. I joke I have PTSD from labor but its not a joke its true! I was up walking within 10 mins of having my son. I showered with in the hour by myself. The epidural I got was bogus and barely worked at all, I felt my legs, feet whole time and my son came out just fine!
Then Jan.1st my best friend gave birth here at the American hospital and as I rushed there I thought how odd I get in intense situations and I hoped she was well. I rush in her room and find her..laughing! Relaxed, talking, not breaking ONE sweat! When it came time to push she could feel the contraction to do it but did not hurt her at all, they had a nice little mirror set up so she could see everything. OH how I envied her situation! She was so relaxed and calm, she really enjoyed giving birth. Her epidural was AMAZING
It was a continuous one where mine was not.
She wanted to go natural as well but like me made it to about 3cm and said forget it!
This time around I am having my son in the same German hospital because I enjoyed the care I got my whole pregnancy and after birth. But no doubt will I get the epidural the MOMENT I go in there for birth!!
I felt like being forced to go with out medication ruined the experience. I was honestly LOSING my mind. Im terrified that will happen to me again. As much as this time I want to say I want a water birth I know that with my son I progressed way to fast and the back labor was horrible no water was going to help me. Not everything you read online is true. I got a dose epidural my friend got a continuous epidural and she was able to move her legs right after birth, showered with in the hour alone ect. Its really not as bad ..and who ever is in those natural birthing videos not begging for death deserve some type of award cause I do not know how they do it!
Sorry for the long story lol but thats why I will be choosing an epidural. The advice I give is see what your hospital or birthing center has to offer medication wise and do your home work but keep in mind that everyones body, baby, and system is different so it may take the medicine lightly or heavily you just never know!!!
I would like something in between an epidural and all natural maybe there is some drug out there they can offer. I just want to be completely pain free! I wish we could choose a csection but I am glad we had a vaginal birth and I did heal pretty quickly when I know csections is quite painful and takes a while to heal so I would try to avoid that unless for safety reasons we needed one. I tore as well, and dont really remember when the stitches were out since I was too scared to look down there anyway. Most women have some type of tear and it does not mess them up down there for life!
