I hope you don't feel blindsided with horror about "The Epidural" with images of endless pitfalls, and walking around with so many tubes you feel like a sea urchin!
It's hard when you're an impressionable first time mum. I basically just stuck my head in the sand when conversations with other mums got rolling in my third trimester because I was stressed out to the MAX about what kind of birthing experience I would have.
Sure there was some wonderful advice, but I found so many of my friends viewed their choices as sacrosanct... which was such a cop out to me because for every report, statistic or investigation quoth to me.... a contradictory offering would appear somewhere else
After an insufferable amount of time wasted looking for my answers, I found talking to my mum satisfied my needs in the end (why didn't I think of that in the first place? lol). She has had four kids, all VB's and the last child was an epidural. She worked for Norman Beischer, a Melb Uni professor of obstetrics and gynecology so she had heaps of books (okay some outdated) to flick through and lots of loving and unbiased advice.
What can I tell you about my experience?
I hated my labour, the bath was great for early labour, gas was great later, I loved my epidural, I was disappointed that I had to have a c-section, but I loved cuddling and sleeping with my daughter as I recovered.
..and I was slightly jealous of the ladies in the next room that had a natural delivery and went off to jump in the shower! But my mum would wash me twice a day until I could myself
It's funny - people actually feel sorry for what I went through! But my daughter was well, I wasn't traipsing about like the walking wounded so I couldn't quite relate to their empathy. Some people even choose this as their birth plan (epidural, c-section) so isn't so bad that people don't want it......and choose it again sometimes as a first preference.
Aaaand, that's a wrap. Rant over.
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