How many of us have had a natural birth?

[berrme]

Just remembered that I had a stitch for my 1st degree tear (TMI it was more of a graze and apparently they wanted to stitch it to make urinating less painful for me). Is stitches for a tear an intervention?

Surely stitches afterward doesn't count? I had a serious second degree tear (which was probably due to the directed pushing, lol) so not stitching wasn't an option.

My VBAC was not natural. This time around I would like to keep off the gas as long as possible, not have AROM, and will be listening to my body, not the midwife when it comes to pushing. The needle to get the placenta out doesn't really bother me though. To those who have had the needle and a physiological 3rd stage did it really make a difference to your experience?

[Tuesday's Child]

DD's birth was completely natural in hospital. I even tried to go without pain relief (other than a local) while my 2nd degree tear was stitched. It didn't take much convincing to get me sucking on the gas

[onthefly]

Still hoping for third time lucky
First was intervention from the get-go and totally unnecessary. Second time we needed intervention.
I think so many interventions are considered 'standard' and parents don't tend to question them. It'w probably warped our perspectives about normal (or natural) birth - many would consider any vaginal birth a natural one, for eg. Or some might consider a labour without drugs natural, regardless of circumstances.
In any case, more important than whether or not there is intervention is whether or not it is truly necessary and improves outcomes.