Bring on the good stuff
Thank you all for your thoughts on birthing classes yesterday. It gave me a lot to consider. And for all of you who advocate or participated in a natural, drug-free child birth I’ll give you a southern “Bless your hearts” and a northern “Oh hell no!” I have huge respect for the ladies who have the conjones fortitude to get through child birth naturally. I am not one of those women. I am a wimp when it comes to physical pain. When I told Steve I was surprised by the number of natural child birth advocates out there, he got a very scared look on his face. He knows that wouldn’t end well for any of us – me, him, the doctors and nurses. It would just be ugly. They don’t give out awards (or even big warm chocolate chip cookies) for doing it naturally and I’m no hero. Bring on the epidural.
Michelle-
I stumbled upon your website through my sis n law, Ashley, and now I’m hooked!
I’ll tell you what the doctor told me when I had my first son… “Jennifer, you know God made drugs for a reason!”
That is the advice I pass on to you…Why go through the pain if you don’t have to!
Love your blog!
Ha ha you crack me up, Michelle 🙂 Bless your heart, is the funniest to me cause I would never know that someone was saying it and actually calling me crazy.
We are all different for a reason, you need to make the best choice for you and for your family. You are the only one who knows what that is, so just educate yourself the best you can and then at least you know you made an educated decision for yourself.
I hear you on this one. . . I think one of my the first questions that I asked my dr when I found out that I was pg was “Exactly how soon can I get the epidural?”
Preach it, sister … I’m proud to have helped win another over to the happy, sweat-free side of childbirth.
(and I’m going to be plagiarizing your “bless your heart/oh hell no” tag)
If I ever am successful, I already know the epidural is for me.
Haha! It’s good though that you know yourself well enough not to try it. You want to have a good birth experience, and that is different for everyone.
Okay, kuddos to those who do it without the pain meds, but not for me. As for childbirth classes, I never took them; I found that the labor experience, with epidural, was quite straight forward as I had nurses checking on me throughout and were there to answer any questions. As far as pushing, same as you would if you were, ehem…taking a dump so to speak! If you have any questions, you can e-mail me!
I remember laying in my hospital bed and about jumping out of my skin everytime I heard footsteps in the hallway and saying, “Is that him, is that the anesthosiologist?” Awwww sweet releif. I can tell you that it took the edge off and I could still feel to push and my daughter is healthy as a horse and always has been, after being 8 lbs 2 oz at birth.
One more note…I wasn’t fond of being pregnant (a lot to do with running after 2 little ones while being that way), but I loved the labor! The epidural really helped me relax and get some sleep and enjoy what was going on instead of being consumed by pain, just my experience anyhow!
My exact words to my doctor were, “I don’t want a medal, I want a baby”. Yup, bring on the epidural. However, mine actually wore off and wasn’t re-booted for the last 3 hours of my labor and it was the worst pain ever imaginable. If I had to do it again, I’d drug up completely.
Michelle~You crack me up!!!
I’ve enjoyed your blog for a while – delurking to tell you to keep an open mind. I’ve done it 4 times -each one was sooooo different. The first two times were so fast and easy. I promise I am not good with pain. But -I must have been incredibly lucky. #3 was more like I expected some pain- but still pretty fast- by the time I was asking about drugs- it was over. #4 -Much slower and Give me drugs NOW! You would think it would get easier! I do think the classes taught the husband how important his part is to the mental state of Momma!
Amen, Sister.
When I had both of my girls the hospital was pretty behind the times and didn’t do epidurals, so wasn’t an option. You better believe I would try that route. I hear it is the baum!!
I was able to go drugless with Krista, but that is only because the side effects of the drugs with Cassie were too much for me.
Oh, and I do recommend the classes. They were very helpful for both of us.
I am also a lurker and love your blog. I am a huge advocate of drugs for delivery! I was NOT interested in a natural birth at all and I had the most pain free, wonderful delivery. I don’t know if I’ve ever been that relaxed in my life. I sat and read a magazine and my dh napped until I dilated to 10. I then pushed for about an hour, but it was not difficult pushing at all. I felt like I hardly did anything and out she came. I remember looking over at the epidural machine pumping away and telling dh that it was the happiest sound that I’ve ever heard. More power to the natural birth moms, but it is not for me.
Go anesthesia!
Amen to you and your “Oh hell no.” I am right there with you. Doing it without drugs does NOT make you a better mom! It makes you crazy in my opinion!!!!
In the famous words of my dear friend in labor, who early on her pregnancy thought she wanted no pain meds “F*&@ the birth plan!!!!”
Dude, I wanted the epidural for the adoption!! I’m so with ya!!