How many of us have had a natural birth?

Ask me in a couple of weeks ;)


Sent from my iPhone so forgive the speelung misstacks ;)

No for both!
DD1 - synto for induction after waters breaking 12 hours prior, peth, gas, episiotomy, scalp monitor of DD and injection for placenta (PPH).

DD2 - AROM about 5mins before she was born!

I had a natural birth in my books.

I did have a jab for my placenta, and then so many stitches they stopped counting and an epidural while the Ob with the biggest hands in the world put my hoo ha back together (seemingly from the inside out LOL)

I have always thought of them as things that happened after the birth as such so it depends on your perspective.

DH would say that the most unnatural thing that is associated with DD's birth was the hospital food :)

I think it depends what you call natural. I think mine were but make of it what you will.

DS1 - spontaneous rupture of membranes, got to hospital at 7cm dilated, hooked up to monitor, birthed bub shortly after and (against my better judgement) had the shot in the leg to hurry up the placenta. Damn ob - I think she was on the clock. Anyway ... no pain relief drugs, no prodding or suction etc with medical instruments.

DS2 - labour began, in hospital at about 6cm dilated, laboured happily while hooked to a monitor but standing upright, my choice to ask for ARM (ahhhh, bliss), bub born 30 mins later. No shot in the leg to hurry up placenta .. "surprisingly" it did that job all by itself shortly after DS2 was born. No pain relief drugs, no prodding, suction or whatever with medical instruments.

While I would have chosen not to be monitored, both my boys heart rates dipped a little lower than they should have at various stages during the latter parts of their births, so it made sense to keep tabs on it.

Just to expand a little, I intended from day 1 of pregnancy to have natural births - I just "felt" I could do it. I researched what happens during birth (as in why things feel the way they do and what's happening with muscles, ligaments etc), educated myself, took hypnobirthing course ... pretty much did whatever I could possibly do to try and get the best possible outcome for me to achieve my aims.

Although I didn't know what to expect for how my birth would go (before DS1), I wasn't nervous ... just curious and excited. For whatever reason I had self-confidence and self-belief in my ability to birth without need for drugs. I did have two straight forward births - I had lots of accupuncture, massage and relaxation exercises in the latter stages of both pgs, and maybe those things helped. I was also adamant no medical person was going to force me into doing something I didn't want (case in point, I discharged myself from hosp against advice with DS1 to go home and establish labour. Their reasoning? My waters had broken. No, really? Promise I wont go have sex or sit in dirt).

Anyhoo, I'm not anti-intervention. It can be very necessary. I'm just anti-having-your-choice-taken-away-from-you-by-Obstetricians-who-perform-medical-births-and-forget-what-a-natural-birth-is-and-expect-you-to-perform-to-a-clock. Thank God I had a supportive Ob!

Whatever the case, I guess my feeling is that knowledge = less fear/tension = confidence to birth naturally = increased natural births. IF THAT'S WHAT MUM WANTS. Cos it's her choice how she births :)

Um, sorry for long post. I didn't realise I was passionate about natural birth until I had my sons.

one labour

29 hours of labour at home in birthing pool
ambulance ride
7 hours of medical intervention, allegedly to bring labour on more strongly, but it actually had the opposite effect
then emergency c-section (which they had been wanting me to have, the whole time i was there)

during emergency c-section, obst discovered "bandl's ring" happening to my uterus (strangling baby to death) and after forceps, and vacuum failed (yes during a c-section), the whole team, not just the obs, had to collectively use much more violent methods to get baby out (to break the suction of the uterine muscles) so bilby came out by an arm, very suddenly yanked out, not breathing

it was the kind of labour, that in the "olden days", a woman might be in labour for five days, then mother and baby would end up dead at the end of it. so medical intervention was warranted, but i still grieve for the natural water birth i really really really wanted to have. Band's Ring is very uncommon, but it does happen. Uterine muscles strangle the baby, instead of contract and expand (like in normal labour), all they do is contract, VERY tightly.

and immediately after - no trauma counselling, nothing, just "just be glad you have a breathing baby and forget it all".
Took maybe a year before i could walk and stand normally. Stomach muscles took a pounding (due to how they got her out).

Natural birth? Well....yes, no and otherwise.

Yes, she came out of my vagina. But not by herself.

36hrs from start of contractions to birth. No pain killers. Back-to-back. Pushed for 3 hours before being told I was being taken "upstairs to get this baby out" (C-sect), which I refused to let them do. BP was taken and over the roof and wee was tested. "Oh btw, you have Pre-Eclampsia" Thanks guys. Also remember senior middie saying "Why didn't anyone check the position of the baby?" Told to get on back and stay there. Injected with something to take BP down. Doctor came to vacuum (the big sink plug on chain type one) DD out - she was blue, but alive and coloured up in a few minutes apparently. Had big Episiotomy. Had big PPH. Spent 4 days in ICU on fluids, clotting agents and blood pressure drugs...then 6 days on 'normal' ward.

Remember Dr talking me through him reaching both arms into me and trying to turn DD around...jeeebus...a fully grown man's arms are NOT meant to go inside vaginas.

I just watched the Docco A breech in the system, and the midwife on there said that around 10% of hospital births are intervention free. The other 90% have some form of intervention, be it drugs or help with the delivery, or induction or whatever.

I consider my VBA2C to be a natural birth although I did have AROM at 10cm cos I asked for it. But 3 days of labour, no drugs, respect for my birth plan and doing it my way is my definition of natural birth;)

I was pretty close but I used the gas, so not natural I guess.
Otherwise the birth was intervention free. Waters broke on their own, contractions started 7 hours later, no 'instruments' used, no injection for placenta and no stitches :)

I've had two natural, drug free, intervention free beautiful births in hospital... natural third stage etc too. <3

I had no pain relief, just used the TENS machine and shower. But then ended up having to have the injection for the placenta.