natural drug-free vaginal birth - calling all moms!
Ok Ladies,
So I've been watching some really scary birth videos on you-tube (I know, i know ). I am now totally freaked out and don't know if I am strong enough to be able to hande this.
Can all you lovely ladies who have had a natural, drug-free birth please share your stories here to give me (and others like me) some hope? How did you do it? How long was your labour? How did you deal with the pain? What preparations did you make during your pregnancy to get you there?
Thank you heaps for sharing your experience. Can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
Had no preperation other than I didn't want drugs or c-sections, and hoped all went to plan.... I was very lucky!!!
I just went with the pain hon. I moved, rocked, walked and squated. Laying on the bed is a killer.
Every contraction i thought, "thats one more down, getting closer to the end" after a while of doing this I got a rhythum up.. and before I knew it, it was time to push....
I had the thought that drugs just were not an option, so I had to get through...
My labours were
8 hr
4 hr
2.5 hr
2 hr
1 hr
1hr 50 min
After all this, I found for me labour was best standing next to the bed, squating down in a contraction, leaning over the bed... and my best labours were standing, and on all fours leaning on the bed head, so kinda upright, butt in the air....
I laboured in the water both times, birthed in the water with DD1 and on all 4s immediately after getting out of the bath with DD2. My labours (established) were 4h20m with DD1 and 5h with DD2 (posterior).
Belle - You CAN do this!! It is what your body was made to do!! If you must youtube, there is a link in the youtube clips section for Trish's births with Teyha and Abbey, and they are just beautiful. There are a few shockers on there though, with more noise than work being done.
Hi! I can't believe you are 22wks already!! It goes fast hey...
I had a drug-free (no gas either) active, natural labour & birth that I loved!! It can be done! Although it was very painful, I enjoyed it all.... all 9.5hrs of it. Pain with purpose!! I believed in my body's ability from the word go and knew I could do it.
I had every intention to use water in my labour however i couldnt get into the bath/spa as i had too much pain in my lower back (she was POSTERIOR ) so you do have to keep an open mind when you go into labour and how things can change..... iykwim.
here is my story.... hope it helps!
hun - your body was made to eat, drink, make babies AND birth them
You can do it - you just have to set your mind to it. Read a couple of books on drug free labour and how the body responds to labour, what happens to you whlile you are in labour - knowledge is the best power.
DD1 was born in hospital and i had peth - didnt research, and i really wish i didnt have it.
DD2 was born at home, in water, no drugs, 1.5 hour labour.
Go for a water birth hun, it is amazing how the water helps you to relax and eases the pain. Each pain is one pain closer to meeting your baby!!!
I'm certainly not a hero, and I am not an ideologue, I just enjoy drug free births.
I had pethidine with my first, but apart from that, I've had the odd whiff of gas and air and that's it. That was over five babies. I didn't like the pethidine at all.
My major way of coping with the physical sensations of labour is to avoid thinking about them as "pain" as much as possible and for as long as possible. We're conditioned to think of labour "pains", labour preparation consists of a lot of information about "pain relief" and the fear we have with labour and delivery enhances our predisposition to experience strong sensations as "pain". With my first baby, I certainly did, and to a lesser extent with #2.
But in the first stage of labour, I have learned to feel and identify stretching, pulling, burning, pressure, all sorts of sensations that I can actually think about and experience now without feeling them as "pain". By the time transition comes around, yeah, it's pain... but fortunately transition for me is quite brief. When the baby is coming down the birth canal and crowning, it often feels like my hips are being pulled apart - but honestly, by that stage the overwhelming pushing urge just overshadows that.
The other thing I do a lot of is positive vocalisation and visualisations. While I'm breathing through contractions, I'll say the word "open," or "okay," or "yes," or "that's good," and breathe those words out long and slow. Those words also help relax your mouth and your chest if you breathe them.
Doing all this releases a heck of a lot of endorphins, and I am honestly quite high for much of my labour. The adrenaline kick of transition sort of cancels that out but I recognise that's necessary too!
Most of all for me it is confidence - I know that my body births well and easily, and I've no reason to suspect that it will be any different this time. And if things do go awry and I can't cope, I've got people there to give me what I need.
I hope this is encouraging for you!
#1 - induction at 38 weeks, 8 hours, NVD
#2 - induction at 42 weeks, 3 hours, NVD
#3 - induction at 39 weeks, 5 hours, NVD
#4 - spontaneous at term, 2-3 hours active labour, NVD
#5 - induction at term, 4 hours, NVD
2 out of my 3 labours i have had natural drug-free vaginal births..... (1st i had pethadine).
My labours are verrrrrrrrrrrry quick. So much so i got to hossi with DD#2 and there was no time to go upstairs to maternity ward - i had to deliver in emergency - i still had my shoes on during birth. I was 7cm when i arrived. 2 pushes and she was out.
3rd labour....i got to hossi at 3am...had her at 5am. This was by far the most painful labour, and most exhausting, but i have it in my head the whole time 'i can do this'.....each contraction is bringing you closer to baby...and as painful and tear jerking are these contractions, they dont last forever. Its bliss when the midwife says 'you can start pushing now'....ahh how i love those words. But if you believe in yourself, believe your body can do this, reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally concentrate on your breathing, then you will do it.....
I was induced 9 days over, and had a very positive birth. I went in all prepared to have an epidural that just "never came". I later learnt and thank her for it today that my mum told the nurses i was coping really well and to just wait. I went into it trusting that my body knew what to do and just took everything as it came. Every time i had a contraction i tapped my heels on the ground and breathed through my mouth and thought yes every contraction is helping push this baby out. It is totally in your head. I found a position i was comfortable in (bending over a chair in the shower with the hottest water running over my back with dh massaging in hard circles my lower back) and i stayed there for 5 hours lol. I then got the urge to push, its like your body overtakes. I tried to go to the toilet obviously nothing came out! So i got in the bath for like 5 mins but wasnt liking it. Then it was time to push i just stayed on the bed with my legs up and went for it. I too felt like i was "high" and was actually asleep during contractions when i was pushing. All up my labour was 7 hours and i didnt think the contractions were the hardest part. For me that was right at the end when i was just so tired and felt like i couldnt do it anymore. that was my low point but the midwives whipped me into line and then i think it was like 3 pushes and he was out.
Think positive. its all over once the heads out. Good luck.
Harry was the only one that would be mostly considered as truly natural. I didnt let them put the synto drip in until after I had delivered the placenta, so by all accounts, it was all over and done before there was any kind of intervention (and thats a JIC measure basically). The other 4 were all AROMed - I have tough membranes. Hehe.
"Active" labour times would be 12h, 8h, 18h(staff got too involved - then got "too busy"), 5h and 4h.
Pain wise - well I know it *looks* bad there, and I am not going to pretend it ain't painful. But its not a traumatic painful. I've said to a few people before that you and your body would be more traumatised by surgery than natural labour (not singling out c-sections at all. I get over labour and birth faster than my husband has got over endoscopic keyhole surgery on his wrists where he felt nothing of the process - its just how it is). Although I am going to qualify that now with uninterfered with labour.
Ironically, I fear needles more than the pain of labour. I like to look at it like the band-aid treatment. Once its done, its done. Wish I could tell you more - but instinct is pretty hard to explain.
My first birth I was induced, had an epidural and labour was 12 hrs.
My second I was also induced, no drugs and labour was 2hrs 8mins. I just rode through the contractions and kept telling myself that this will all end soon - it doesnt go on forever. Most of my labouring I spent on exercise ball, rocking and moving around. I birthed him on all 4's in the bathroom of the labour ward!
The pain was still full on, but I survived like all the other women in this thread did too and most of us are or have gone back for more, so it cant really be that bad now can it?!?
I also didnt have any birth plans except that I didnt want a caesar, episiotomy or stitches (if I could help that one). It wasnt ever written on paper, just what DH and I had discussed personally. I am hoping to have my next one drug free and hopefully induction free too!
natural drug-free vaginal birth - calling all moms!
). I am now totally freaked out and don't know if I am strong enough to be able to hande this.
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I was very lucky!!!
) so you do have to keep an open mind when you go into labour and how things can change..... iykwim. 
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