Birth plans & drug-free birth - how much do you want it?

[angelfish]

This is a really interesting thread. Re birth plans, I think Kelly is right that it might be helpful for them to be more detailed and specific. You could even write down exactly what you want to happen if you change your mind, eg epi as soon as you request it, or alternatives such as wait until you have asked several times in half an hour, only after trying change of position, wait another 5 ctx and see whether you still feel you need it etc.

IMO one of the biggest problems is women getting confused between pain RELIEF and techniques for working with or coping with pain. If you have some aromatherapy and a CD of your favourite songs, and you expect that they will make the pain disappear, you are bound to be disappointed!

Personally, I thought that this was one of the best reasons to opt for a home birth. If I wanted an epi, I would have had to actually transfer to the hospital. Kind of like not filling your house with junk food when you're on a diet.

BTW, the most servere pain I ever experienced was my breast abscess. I found this much more painful than anything in labour. (Although this could be psychological?)

[Lil_Pearl]

IK - yes, that was true for my AN class (at a birth centre). Women have such mixed emotions - they are in a birth centre because they FEEL that natural birth will be the way to go, it's an instinctive feeling that that would be the best thing....yet they still have the fear, and so there is such conflicting emotions happening, they're confused about what they want, because they don't have the knowledge to feel empowered....they don't trust themselves as much as the back-ups that will be available.

angelfish - I agree with what you said about the pain of childbirth. Childbirth education needs to include (and go into great depth about) education on the pain of childbirth, the normalcy of it, the goodness of it, the fact that it has many different purposes, from physically letting one know how close they are to delivery, through to the empowerment one experiences after winning what seems like a life-and-death battle. It is huge, it is a right-of-passage, not something to fight. If women understood pain in childbirth as a positive thing, something to work with, then they would find the strength they need to go beyond their 'limits', their hormonal interplay will lead to them having LESS pain, and they will have shorter, safer births in general.