Sticking to your guns

[jeanyern123]

I plan to have a natural, water birth at hospital.
Any tips on achieving this? Did you have your ideal natural birth? Did you experience pushy midwives?
My biggest worry is the midwifes being too insistent and pressuring me.
Love n light xx

 

[lynnikins]

Take a birth partner who knows what you want and will advocate for your wishes. make it clear in your birth plan what you do not want to happen but plan for all scenarios. Make sure you practice your breathing/hypno or what you want to use for pain relief and when in labour focus on what your body is doing rather than letting the labour control you

 

[ljo1984]

A mw should not be pushing pain relief at all, if you do a birth plan add in there that you plan to go natural and wish to be supported in this, if you decide to have pain relief YOU will ask for it and do not want any discussion of it otherwise

 

[jeanyern123]

Supposedly, the mw's here in Aussie are bolshy. So am I... when Im "coherent" (for lack of a better word). When Im in labour I have the feeling I will cave lol.
My DH will be there, fingers crossed he pulls a page from the movie Knocked Up and takes things into accord, calm and control the labour as much as he can for my benefit.
I just think it's a shame you initially can't have what you want in labour, you have to write out a plan to hand out and convince people of it and explain what your intentions are etc etc. I hope, I get a MW who's all Yip Sweet As...

 

[ljo1984]

..... Back the f@@k off!!!! Love knocked up lol.

My friend is in Adelaide and she had two natural births there so there not all the same. Just make it clear in a plan and while labour isn't as intense that you don't want any pushing of meds if you decide later on you want something you will ask. It's your labour and they should respect you and your decisions.

 

[aliss]

Is this your first?

I couldn't say no to drugs the first time so I stayed home as long as possible the 2nd time. It really helped and managed to do without.

 

[BunnyN]

I read a good tip about avoiding unnecessary interventions in hospital. If you are being told you "need" an intervention ask if you can wait 10 mins or have 10 mins to think about it. If they say yes it's not an emergency and can generally be refused or put off until much later.

 

[HopefulEm]

We had a pushy midwife who didn't respect one of my requests and kept trying to convince me bad things could happen if I didn't listen. My husband who was looking out for me realized it wasn't going to work so he asked to switch midwives. The new woman was much better which made me very glad we switched.

Don't hesitate to ask for someone else if you need to! Or better yet ask your DH to make the call because you might not be coherent enough to make the call yourself.

 

[Eriamel]

Explore your options and find a midwife and hospital that is pro-natural birth. Go on tours, have a LONG list of questions and a birth plan ready and if you see hesitation with one of your demands then you know it's not the place for you...

Try to find a hospital in your area that has a pro natural reputation... or a birth center otherwise.