Here goes nothing.....my all-natural birth plan

Yup, you read that right. I have been very reluctant about writing this post for a number of reasons. When asked how I want my birth to be, and when I respond “all natural”, I get the standard “Oh you just wait”, “You’ll want an epidural”, or “There’s nothing wrong with getting meds!” Over time, this got into my brain and I started to question MY ability to do it. I felt in my heart I could, but I mean, with almost everyone saying these things, could I really? Was I missing something? So for awhile, I did question if I would even be able to, but now I am proud to say through my research, I am 100% ready for it…….bring it on!! Once again, these are MY reasons and MY journey…..this is not to say this is how it should be done, it is my opinion on how I want my childbirth. Here’s my journey through my decision to have an all-natural childbirth.

If you know me, you know I can NOT stand medicine. I hate to feel “altered” in any way. Danny jokes with me all the time that it’s the part Native American in me that comes out because I would much rather let whatever I have take it’s course, or do natural remedies. My goal was when I got pregnant, to not take any medication (yes, even Tylenol) throughout my pregnancy. Even though some drugs are considered safe, and are even on Dr’s lists of “safe” drugs, the Committee of Drugs of the American Academy of Pediatrics has stated that “there is no drug, whether over the counter or prescription, which when taken by the child-bearing women has been proven safe for the unborn child.” With that said, I will say that during this pregnancy, I have taken 2 tylenol, and anti-biotics for a urinary tract infection (which I now regret taking). UTI’s are very common in pregnancy, and I was scared that if I didn’t take the meds and it got worse, that I would hurt Emily, so I took them. After I did more research on it, I drank a glass of Cranberry juice everyday to combat my UTI’s, and what do you know, not another one since. Now this may not “cure” them for every pregnancy, but it worked for me, and I will know better for my next pregnancy. So, my dislike of drugs is one of my main reasons for going all- natural.

My main reason is the adverse effects of the drugs on Emily and my body. It amazes me how these drugs that are supposed to speed things up, actually make things SO much worse. I’ll talk about the most common drugs/procedures used in pregnancy:

-Pitocin is used to induce labor. What most people don’t realize is that is it making your body do something that it is not ready to do. Your own body is producing contractions, and when Pitocin is introduced, it also makes your body produce contractions, and most of the time, they are doing it at different times. This results in contraction on top of contraction, or a really long contraction, or a really BIG contraction. No thank you…..I’ll take my natural contrations anyday over that mess. The hazards of using Pitocin are prematurity, infection, uterine spasms, violent labor, amniotic fluid entering the mother’s bloodstream, lacerations of the cervix, postpartum hemorrhage, uterine rupture, fetal distress, and failure of induction.

-An Epidural is used in 70% of the births at the hospital I’m going to be giving birth at. 70%! The risks of this outweigh the benefits in my eyes. Once you are on an EPI, you are placed on a cathedar which means you no longer pee on your own. You are also numb from above the waist down so you can’t feel when to push most of the time. This is very crucial because if you push at the wrong time during the contraction, you will tear and create much uneeded stress on you and the baby. A Dr looking at a screen telling you when to push is not the same as your body telling you when it is ready to push. There has also been evidence that if the epi is placed for longer than 6 hours, it has adverse affects on the baby. When the baby comes out drugged up and out of it, it takes MUCH longer to nurse and they are not as alert as a baby with no drugs in it’s system. Two of my very close friends had bad affects as a result of getting an epi. One, it was placed too far into her spine, and punctured the spinal wall where the spinal fluid is. It started leaking out giving her horrible spinal headaches. This is fairly common and she needed a blood patch. She had to go back in, and they took blood and put it in the same hole as the epidural, and injected it so it would clot the hole of leaking spinal fluid. Another friend had an epidural and for a few months afterward, she would sit on the floor and couldn’t lift one leg over the other. This is pretty common, but not any less scary, as well.

-Caesarean Surgery. Fifteen years ago, your odds of having a C-section birth were 30 to 1. Today, your odds are 4 to 1. Scary, right? “About half of the C-section operations done each year in the U.S. are unnecessary.” –Washington Post, 1994. Now, there are emergency situations where this is needed, take my mom for example: When she went into labor with my brother 6 weeks early, the cord was wrapped around his neck and he was having trouble breathing. This is when a C-section is needed! Another huge reason Dr’s jump to C-sections is Cephalopelvic disproportion meaning the mother’s pelvis is too small for the baby’s head to fit through. The FDA has now published a booklet that the number of women that had a truly “small” pelvis was as low as one or two cases in 2500. So, I have a feeling quite a few Dr’s were just done with the “puttering labor” of many women, and needed a reason….what do you think?! My friend who had a natural birth would have been wisked away for a c-section because of this if she was in a hospital setting. She had to work in different positions for hours to get her little one’s head to finally mold and fit through. If she was in a hospital hooked up to machines, she would have not been able to move around on her own and help her baby fit. Lying on your back in a hospital bed is not even close to the best position for labor….so now you see the Dr’s dilemma.

My other reasons for going all-natural are no cycle of interventions, labor will be shorter without meds, I can labor in all positions, no internal monitor (which means no hole in the babies head), Emmy will be fully alert after birth, I can continue to eat and drink while in labor, quicker recovery, I will be able to breastfeed immediately, and there are others. There are many other things that I have researched including IVs, stripping membranes, rupturing the bag of waters, episiotomy, etc. Since this section is getting too long, if you want to talk to me about what I found about any of these, just let me know!

What’s my plan then?! I am going to labor at home for as long as I can in my bathtub and my bed. I will go to the hospital only when my contractions get 3 minutes apart, lasting for 60 seconds. This will allow me to go through a huge chunk of my labor without worry about Dr’s or nurses interventions. Now of course this is my “plan” and if I sense something is wrong, we will go into the hospital. I have a Doppler at home, so I will be monitoring her heartbeat every now and then for my own sanity. I am also doing The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth. A Dr who wrote a book about all of the different methods of childbirth says, “If you’re the kind of person who likes to do your own thing and can count a great deal on your husband to help you do it, then I recommend the Bradley Method to you. For those with enough self-confidence, it may be the most rewarding natural childbirth method available in the United States.” Bradley focuses on relaxation techniques and having a support system in place that help me through each contraction. My husband and my mother are mine. I also plan to have two “phone doulas” that we will call when/if we are having concerns or questions. They really aren’t doulas at all, but a cousin and a dear friend who have been through natural childbirth before and I trust their techniques and opinions.

When people tell me “Why would you put yourself through that?” and “I’d rather just enjoy my childbirth and get pain medicine”…..I often just say, “It’s just not for me,” because it would take WAY to long to tell people all of my reasons backed by research, and to be honest, if getting meds is fine with them, then what do I care? I’m not having their baby, I’m having MINE and this is my decision. I want to feel it all, I don’t want to feel altered. I don’t know why over the years childbirth has become this horribly scary thing where we had to result to medicine to get through it. For hundreds of years women and animals have been doing this on their own…..why can’t I? I have faith in the fact that God MADE my body to be able to do this. He did not make my body a “lemon.” I trust that He, my body, my support system, and my will to do this will get me through. I am ready now and I CAN do this! So, if anyone has negative opinions or wants to tell me “just wait”…..just keep it to yourself. I don’t want to hear I can’t do something from people who barely know me ;) And for those who support me and help me through this, thank you!!