#1 No back pains
I know what you’re thinking. Aren’t back pains apart of pregnancy and aren’t they well, inevitable? First, I need to lead with the obvious which is that pregnancies and labors come in all different shapes and sizes. No two scenarios will be identical (unless we’re talking about twins, ha!). Some moms experience back pains during labor. Others don’t. In fact, I didn’t have any major back pains during any of my four labors.
The back pains that I’m referring to are the ones that came for the months following my very first labor. I went into the delivery room with the expectation of doing the whole delivery without any medication. Let’s just say, I was ill-prepared for the task at hand to follow through on those initial plans. At 5cm in, I was asking for that epidural.
What I experienced for months to follow was waking in the morning with the inability to move due to pain in my back. For all three of my births that followed, I never experienced that debilitating pain in my back again. The only difference is that I had an epidural with my first but completely opted out for the last three.
# 2 Increased Awareness
There was another major difference between my first time giving birth and the other three that followed. That was my ability to recall memories and feel present during my birthing experience. I remember some key periods of my oldest’ birth but after a certain sequence of events, it all becomes a blur. I kissed my newborn on her cheek and the nurses escorted her away to the NICU to receive oxygen. Immediately after, I cried and I think I drifted off to sleep.
I can recall that after the birth of my second child, I was so excited and filled with oxytocin. Although I remember being super exhausted, I did not, could not allow myself to fall asleep. All I wanted to do was stay up all night and hold my new bundle of joy. My heart felt so full. I could not ever stop remembering that feeling. I can’t help but attribute that level of awareness to my opting out of a medicated birth.
# 3 Reduce Risk of Malpractice
Okay so obviously in any medical procedure and when receiving care by others, there is the possibility of mistakes and malpractice. I don’t personally know any loved ones who have experienced malpractice but of course that is the chance that a person has to be aware of. An epidural, in particular is a procedure that must be performed with great care and precision. A couple of cm in the wrong direction could mean serious repercussions for the affected individual. I’ll leave that to you as the reader to get the specific details on epidurals if you should so desire. I do want to affirm my agreeance with informed decision- making versus fear-based decision making.
# 4 More freedom in Birthing Positions
With each of my birthing experiences, I gained more knowledge as you would imagine. If you’ve been delving into the world of birthing, then you may be aware that birthing of your back is not the most ideal position for moving your baby through the birthing canal. But on my back, was the only possible position for me when I received the epidural.
Not only was i in a less-than-ideal position, but I remember being instructed to refrain from pushing because the medication was so strong that when i was told to push, i literally couldn’t feel anything in my pelvic region. I was straing so hard but didn’t even know it.
This led to a number of consequences which were:
- I had a painful tear that needed to be stitched up
- my baby had to sit in the birthing canal when she was ready to be born
- my baby lost oxygen and needed to be placed in the nicu to be stabilized
- my baby had a blood vessel that bursted in her eye while sitting in the birth canal
The four outcomes above were the only reasons I needed to help me choose a more natural and holistic labor in my three births that followed.
# 5 Feel Like Superwoman
As if the reasons listed above are not convincing enough for you to decide on a stress-free approach to your baby’s birth, then this last one should do it for you. Once I made it over the hurdle of my very last labor surge and the final push, I was awarded with such astounding feelings of accomplishment and pride. I immediately knew that this was an experience that I wanted to duplicate. As crazy as it may sound, I truly felt like superwoman with each new birth of a child.
Yes, it is truly amazing to carry and birth a child by way of ceserean, vaginal, medicated or non-medicated. However, my experience with a non- medicated birth seemed to be even more rewarding the more that I relied more on my bodies abilities and less on intervention.
No mater what methods and choices you make for your birth, be open to the ideas of having a stress-free one at best.
Many blessings on your journey!
XO,
Janeek
