I’ve realized recently that I am struggling against what may be my authentic self.
I am interested in the “natural” world…by this I am including meditation, crystals, organic foods, alternative health, back to basics stuff...but no matter how much excitement I start with, it peters out. Yet I always make time for getting my hair cut & colored, getting my nails filled, etc.
As I’ve explored my birthing options, I wanted to try for the hypnobirthing & more natural methods but I struggle with just picking up the books & finishing reading them. Yet when we had our hospital orientation I completely resonated with the nurse and her points of view & sense of humor. For as long as I can remember, I have always said that I would get “the works” when it came to drugs during labor and its only recently that I’ve considered alternatives. I have been listening to women’s birth stories via podcasts (pregnastic is the website & podcasts) and they have been wonderful to listen to. The women start out pregnant and discussing pregnancy issues on the show & then when they have their babies and come back & tell their story. It’s based out of San Diego, so it is Americanized, but the experiences are fairly parallel to Canadians I would think. I’ve probably listened to about 20 birth stories and have heard the full spectrum from lovely, natural births to complicated natural births, to medical interventions to planned c-sections.
The key thing I have picked up from all their stories is that you should be as knowledgeable as possible going in so that you can make educated decisions as you go along so that you can be satisfied with your birthing experience. You can’t control what happens during your birth, but you can be in control of the decisions as they come up and thus feel that you did the best you could with what you had.
As I’ve been contemplating my birthing decisions one lady’s comment stuck out in my mind. She had a natural birth & enjoyed it, however she said one of the reasons she thinks she had such a positive experience was that she has been a runner for many years and thus has great stamina. Well lets be honest, I am not in great shape and don’t have great stamina! I also have a pretty low pain threshold and don’t have the best attitude under pressure. Last night I woke up with a bit of a gas cramp and I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it through that LOL So I’m thinking, that in order for Tyler, baby & I to have the best birthing experience for us, I’ll be opting for an epidural. Compared to laughing gas & the other narcotics, I am most comfortable with the epidural as they believe it doesn’t pass through to the placenta (& if it does, it’s probably minimal). My two biggest concerns with the epidural is that sometimes epidurals can slow down contractions and also that the epidural could wear off before the actual baby coming out moment. As for other risks, the nurse at our orientation said that there has never been a case in 20 years of anyone in Canada having spinal injuries (or anything related like that) from an epidural.
Realistically, looking back I have been pretty liberal during my pregnancy rather than conservative. I have continued to dye my hair, get my nails down, take a prescription drug, accidentally ate a few chocolates that had vodka in them, consumed junk food regularly, drank coffee and didn’t take my prenatal vitamins or exercise much (despite my original best intentions)… The only things I haven’t done are hot tubs/steam rooms (which I’m not that into so it wasn’t a sacrifice), drinking alcohol, every other drug and avoiding my skin products that I know are ‘unsafe’ for pregnancy. Hopefully my baby survives me and my lack of self discipline! In addition we were pretty liberal/untraditional in terms of wanting to find out gender, having a few extra ultrasounds, stuff like that.
I am interested in the “natural” world…by this I am including meditation, crystals, organic foods, alternative health, back to basics stuff...but no matter how much excitement I start with, it peters out. Yet I always make time for getting my hair cut & colored, getting my nails filled, etc.
As I’ve explored my birthing options, I wanted to try for the hypnobirthing & more natural methods but I struggle with just picking up the books & finishing reading them. Yet when we had our hospital orientation I completely resonated with the nurse and her points of view & sense of humor. For as long as I can remember, I have always said that I would get “the works” when it came to drugs during labor and its only recently that I’ve considered alternatives. I have been listening to women’s birth stories via podcasts (pregnastic is the website & podcasts) and they have been wonderful to listen to. The women start out pregnant and discussing pregnancy issues on the show & then when they have their babies and come back & tell their story. It’s based out of San Diego, so it is Americanized, but the experiences are fairly parallel to Canadians I would think. I’ve probably listened to about 20 birth stories and have heard the full spectrum from lovely, natural births to complicated natural births, to medical interventions to planned c-sections.
The key thing I have picked up from all their stories is that you should be as knowledgeable as possible going in so that you can make educated decisions as you go along so that you can be satisfied with your birthing experience. You can’t control what happens during your birth, but you can be in control of the decisions as they come up and thus feel that you did the best you could with what you had.
As I’ve been contemplating my birthing decisions one lady’s comment stuck out in my mind. She had a natural birth & enjoyed it, however she said one of the reasons she thinks she had such a positive experience was that she has been a runner for many years and thus has great stamina. Well lets be honest, I am not in great shape and don’t have great stamina! I also have a pretty low pain threshold and don’t have the best attitude under pressure. Last night I woke up with a bit of a gas cramp and I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it through that LOL So I’m thinking, that in order for Tyler, baby & I to have the best birthing experience for us, I’ll be opting for an epidural. Compared to laughing gas & the other narcotics, I am most comfortable with the epidural as they believe it doesn’t pass through to the placenta (& if it does, it’s probably minimal). My two biggest concerns with the epidural is that sometimes epidurals can slow down contractions and also that the epidural could wear off before the actual baby coming out moment. As for other risks, the nurse at our orientation said that there has never been a case in 20 years of anyone in Canada having spinal injuries (or anything related like that) from an epidural.
Realistically, looking back I have been pretty liberal during my pregnancy rather than conservative. I have continued to dye my hair, get my nails down, take a prescription drug, accidentally ate a few chocolates that had vodka in them, consumed junk food regularly, drank coffee and didn’t take my prenatal vitamins or exercise much (despite my original best intentions)… The only things I haven’t done are hot tubs/steam rooms (which I’m not that into so it wasn’t a sacrifice), drinking alcohol, every other drug and avoiding my skin products that I know are ‘unsafe’ for pregnancy. Hopefully my baby survives me and my lack of self discipline! In addition we were pretty liberal/untraditional in terms of wanting to find out gender, having a few extra ultrasounds, stuff like that.
There are some things I would like to avoid during the birth though. I haven't heard many good things about pitocin (the drug they administer via IV to induce contractions) and people's experiences with it. I don't like the sounds of episotomies, the vaccuum, forcepts...
So ladies, most of you have had your babies. What were your birthing experiences? What were you happy about, unhappy about, etc?
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