As I said, I was reading up on everything about pregnancy and birth that I could get my hands on. I wanted to know what to look forward to. Drugs and medications never really sounded that appealing to me, though the Entonox always did. In one of the pregnancy and childbirth books I found a list of all the painkilling medications that are commonly given during labour and birth and it included a list of side effects for both mother and child. I lapped it up! I now wish I knew what book that it was in so I could read the list over again. The best of the bunch sounded like the Entonox. Only downside to it is it doesn't work for everyone and some people feel really spaced out while using it.
Well, I know for a fact that it works for me! And very well too. 3 puffs and I'm not feeling any pain at all. Any more than that though and I feel nauseous.
So, while I'm all for the Entonox, WHY else am I natural childbirth supporter? Well, pretty much I have no choice. See, either I go as naturally as possible or I can do it like in the "good" old days and get knocked out and sliced open. See, due to some surgery on my spine to fix my scoliosis, it's now impossible for me to have an Epidural or Spinal block. Thus if I have a cesarean, it's lights out for me. Sound appealing to me? HELL NO!
Also, reading all the natural childbirth books that I could get my hands on, and later all the websites and blogs that I could find, I found out that doing it the medical way isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Now, in saying that things like cesareans and other obstetric procedures have a very good and very important place. It's when they're OVERused that I have an objection to them.
I myself was born via cesarean. I was a stubborn breech and with the 50/50 chance of OI no-one wanted to take the risk that I would break something on the way out. As it was I was born with a broken femur (thigh bone) but it healed quickly after birth. My mum has no bad words to share about her experience. It wasn't easy for her to establish breastfeeding due to a dodgy latch (I would get the nipple under my tongue every single time) but she was determined! After 12 days in the hospital she had it down pat and she breastfed me for 13 months. The only reason she stopped when she did was because I bit her and almost detached her nipple. Oops...
Whoopsie, kind of went a little off track there.
So, I have a very good reason for wanting to avoid a cesarean seeing as I want to be "Present" for the birth of my child/ren and if I'm knocked out then the man thing wouldn't have the opportunity to be present either! That's not an acceptable situation for me so I've looked at the alternatives.
Ultimately, if I wasn't classed as high risk for any reason then my dream birth would be at home. Because I'm high risk that simply isn't possible because I doubt I could find a midwife who would support me and going unassisted really isn't my cup of tea.
Now of course if there is some sort of emergency where having a cesarean would save my life or the babies life then I'm all for it, I'm just not going to be signing up for an elective cesarean anytime soon.
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