Hi Gracie,

You're not in a minority, in a different kind of birth class you'd be in the majority!
I attended birth classes with the NCT in England. Out of a dozen couples, only one other couple did not have a c/s. The other mother was one of those rare people who sneeze and have a baby - her labour was 4 hours. She was a very fit and very calm person. I was less fit and less calm, and my labour was 24 hours. It was so normal it was boring. I did feel that I was the token wierdo hippie of the group (that was a laugh, given my middle-class super-conservative background) but really it was all a matter of choice. I knew I was a poster girl for Ms Average and felt that if I chose hospital birth I'd HAVE a hospital birth and very likely, step by step, would've had intervention and 'needed' pain relief. I chose home birth and so I had a homebirth and didn't need pharmaceutical pain relief.

So much of what happens around birth is the overlay of cultural context. In a different context, what you are planning would be considered totally normal and routine. The trick is to choose what you know is right for you, from the desire of your heart, and stay your course. Choose on the basis of that, not on the basis of what all the others are doing. I can think of some birth classes (independent of hospitals) where what you are planning is routine, ordinary and unremarkable. I can think of other cultures where the same would be true.

Try to focus on what you WILL be doing to support your birth, support your relaxation, enhance your comfort and manage pain rather than on NOT having pharmaceutical pain relief. Is there anything else you could arrange that might support your goals?