Baby Dutch is sleeping, Bart is mowing the lawn and the laundry can wait. So, what is a new mom to do.?.blog, of course. This post is mainly for the few friends and family that have asked about my labor/delivery and how thing went. As I have thought about my "birth story" over the last 6 days at 2 AM (while nursing) I decided that my title or theme is, "Knowledge is empowering but ignorance is bliss". To explain let me back up 7 months to when I found out I was pregnant and chose an OB.
I am Family Nurse Practitioner and an RN. I am comfortable in the hospital and with the medical community. So I chose an "old school" (meaning 50-60 year old, male) OB/GYN and decided to deliver at UVRMC. I would go to the hospital, get an epidural, have a baby and one more of those life experiences would be crossed off my list.
At 29 weeks pregnant, I was up in SLC at the new East Millcreek library. I went to the baby section and saw all these beautiful, new, never been checked out books on birth. Naturally I wanted to stroke the shiny book spines, so I ended up checking out 7 pregnancy and birthing books (and renewed them 4 times). I started reading the books in the evening and even read Bart parts of the books while in the car, in bed at night and during our Leeflang getaway in Park City. Three or four of the books ended up being PRO natural child birth and the others tried to be neutral and give the pros and cons... just educating women on child birth and their options. That is when the knowledge is power thing started. I realized that my body was made to give birth and that women for 1000's of years gave birth without a hospital or doctor or epidural (yes, I know lots of women and babes also died). One of the chapters that I read Bart was titled, "there is a reason for the squeezing", which highlighted the fact that your body needs to contract and needs to used gravity and needs to be able to move while in labor because your body and baby know that baby needs to come out. It made sense to me that there are "primal/natural" urges and that one reason why women may have c-sections is because we go to the hospital get an epidural and then lie in bed, not moving, going against gravity, not being able to feel what our bodies are telling us. Then babies heart rate changes and is in distress which then means the doctor needs to intervene with pitocin and meds. and fluids and things then spiral downward. (Please, please, please, don't be offended if you have had an epidural or c-section, that is not my intent, modern medicine is wonderful).
As, I read these things to Bart and started talking to my family-grma, mom, mother in law, sister and sister in laws, my mind was changing and I started to want to try to give birth naturally. My families experiences ranged from one end of the spectrum (go natural, it's the best) to the other (why would I want to be in pain, epidurals are available for a reason). Obviously the decision came down to me. I worried that labor would be too painful and then I would get excited about "going natural" and that I was WOMAN! About 2 weeks later I decided that I would TRY to go natural.
For around 10 weeks I told myself daily that I would go natural and I continued to read books and even rented a Lamaze DVD and watched a great documentary. The documentary is called, The Business of Being Born, I highly recommend it, if you are interested....WARNING: lots of boobs and home births, so if that's not your thing don't rent it. Bart was supportive, as any husband should/would be...but because he is an engineer the whole using gravity and a woman's body being able to give birth mechanically made sense to him. I told my doctor, around 32 weeks, that I wanted to go natural. He told me that was great and then said that you don't get any special prizes or awards for natural child birth and that you don't even get a front row/reserved seat at church. :) Again, I chose a traditional doctor who does a whole lot more epidurals and c-sections than natural deliveries. The doctor then told me to say at home as long as I could during labor but to remember that I couldn't have an epidural after being dilated to a 8/9 cm.
And that is my "knowledge is empowering" theme and how and why I made the choice to try for a natural childbirth. I figured I'd transition to part 2 with a lovely 37.5 week pregnant photo and my joyful ankle swelling at 38 weeks. :)
I am Family Nurse Practitioner and an RN. I am comfortable in the hospital and with the medical community. So I chose an "old school" (meaning 50-60 year old, male) OB/GYN and decided to deliver at UVRMC. I would go to the hospital, get an epidural, have a baby and one more of those life experiences would be crossed off my list.
At 29 weeks pregnant, I was up in SLC at the new East Millcreek library. I went to the baby section and saw all these beautiful, new, never been checked out books on birth. Naturally I wanted to stroke the shiny book spines, so I ended up checking out 7 pregnancy and birthing books (and renewed them 4 times). I started reading the books in the evening and even read Bart parts of the books while in the car, in bed at night and during our Leeflang getaway in Park City. Three or four of the books ended up being PRO natural child birth and the others tried to be neutral and give the pros and cons... just educating women on child birth and their options. That is when the knowledge is power thing started. I realized that my body was made to give birth and that women for 1000's of years gave birth without a hospital or doctor or epidural (yes, I know lots of women and babes also died). One of the chapters that I read Bart was titled, "there is a reason for the squeezing", which highlighted the fact that your body needs to contract and needs to used gravity and needs to be able to move while in labor because your body and baby know that baby needs to come out. It made sense to me that there are "primal/natural" urges and that one reason why women may have c-sections is because we go to the hospital get an epidural and then lie in bed, not moving, going against gravity, not being able to feel what our bodies are telling us. Then babies heart rate changes and is in distress which then means the doctor needs to intervene with pitocin and meds. and fluids and things then spiral downward. (Please, please, please, don't be offended if you have had an epidural or c-section, that is not my intent, modern medicine is wonderful).
As, I read these things to Bart and started talking to my family-grma, mom, mother in law, sister and sister in laws, my mind was changing and I started to want to try to give birth naturally. My families experiences ranged from one end of the spectrum (go natural, it's the best) to the other (why would I want to be in pain, epidurals are available for a reason). Obviously the decision came down to me. I worried that labor would be too painful and then I would get excited about "going natural" and that I was WOMAN! About 2 weeks later I decided that I would TRY to go natural.
For around 10 weeks I told myself daily that I would go natural and I continued to read books and even rented a Lamaze DVD and watched a great documentary. The documentary is called, The Business of Being Born, I highly recommend it, if you are interested....WARNING: lots of boobs and home births, so if that's not your thing don't rent it. Bart was supportive, as any husband should/would be...but because he is an engineer the whole using gravity and a woman's body being able to give birth mechanically made sense to him. I told my doctor, around 32 weeks, that I wanted to go natural. He told me that was great and then said that you don't get any special prizes or awards for natural child birth and that you don't even get a front row/reserved seat at church. :) Again, I chose a traditional doctor who does a whole lot more epidurals and c-sections than natural deliveries. The doctor then told me to say at home as long as I could during labor but to remember that I couldn't have an epidural after being dilated to a 8/9 cm.
And that is my "knowledge is empowering" theme and how and why I made the choice to try for a natural childbirth. I figured I'd transition to part 2 with a lovely 37.5 week pregnant photo and my joyful ankle swelling at 38 weeks. :)
9 comments:
I'm not kidding I just finished watching, The Business of Being Born (like a minute ago) for the second time and then looked at my google reader and read your post about natural childbirth! I keep thinking about getting a doula, but wonder if I'm too late in the game... You are amazing!
What!?! You can't just leave me hanging like that. I want to know the rest of the story.
I love hearing this!
where's the rest of the story and the happy ending.....come on.....put that baby down and finish the blog!!!!
I'm sure you are glad that baby is out because those feet look MISERABLE!
Obviously I've never had children--but being the daughter of an OBGYN and an RN, I've always been a fan of "traditional" doctors and hospitals. I will definitely go that way. My mom totally supports natural childbirth, as does my dad although he says it's sometimes easier to deliver woman who get the epidural cuz they're a little more calm:)
I am excited to see that you have started to post about your pregnancy and birth story. I think you are wise to have done your research and then followed your heart and mind in making the decision that was best for you. Natural child birth seems inspiring and terrifying all at the same time. An epidural makes it rather easy and not nearly so scary in my mind. Each person definitely has to do what is best for them and to learn from every experience what they would repeat or what they would change.Thanks for sharing and I'm excited to see the sequel to this post. Hope you are loving being a mama and give Dutch extra hugs and kisses!
I'm hooked! Can't wait for you to share part 2. Hope you guys are doing well!
Ditto to what everyone else has said, I can't believe that you just left it like that! Besides, why did you never mention this all to me?!
Post a Comment