What I want is to give our bub the best possible start in life and feel like I have a responsibility to put in some 'hard yards' towards making that happen - a natural birth. This is in the context of not putting either bubs or myself at risk and accepting (well trying to) that if in the end, some form of intervention is absolutely necessary, that I won't have failed in some way. I have had long discussions with my OB about this and he is happy to work with me on this and only intervene if he feels the risk is too great. I've been doing some hypnotherapy to learn to just trust in my body as well as develop relaxation triggers.
I absolutely agree with this and it is ABSOLUTELY POSSIBLE, even in a hospital setting.

I had a totally natural birth with my DD, in 8 hours 15 minutes, with no drugs or interventions. For me it was about continuing all the hard work I had done during pregnancy to put myself and my child to be in absolutely the best position for the birth. I did yoga 6 days a week throughout pregnancy, ate well, took healthy pregnancy supplements and meditated to reassure myself that my body could birth my child successfully. I viewed it like training for a marathon, and I expected it to hurt a lot, but that the pain would be different from "bad pain" - this would be "good pain" bringing my child into the world.

For me personally, I also have a belief in reincarnation so I kept telling myself "you've done this thousands of times before....just not in THIS body. Let the experience of all the women who have gone before you flow through you." Sounds a bit hippy-dippy, but it gave me confidence.

In my rational brain, I balanced intervention risks with a benchmark "best possible" birth experience for both myself and my child. If the life or health of my child were ever at serious risk, then I was happy to let my idea of a perfect birth go by the wayside for her sake. But I also truly believed that the best outcome for both of us would be to get through it with no drugs and as few interventions as possible.

Whether it was luck or hard work or a combination of both, we got the benchmark! I can't imagine how it could have gone better. My body got her out in a 12 minute stage 2 without me having to consciously push at all. She was alert and made eye contact straight away, got off to a flying start with breastfeeding, and she is just the best baby I could imagine.

A lot of people (my OB included) tell me there was a lot of "luck" involved in the birth I had. Yes, there may have been a little bit, but I must admit it peeves me a bit when people say that. I worked damned hard from day 1 of pregnancy to do all I could to optimise my body and mind for the birth.

What I find scary is that out of 15 other mothers at my new Mothers' group, I was the ONLY ONE who had a drug-free, intervention-free labour. Maybe that's why my OB believes I was "lucky" - because most hospital births have interventions....