12/9/10

pregnancy & labor

For those of you who don't know, I am 33 weeks pregnant!! I am so excited because I have made it past the time when i had Elise so early!! I had her at 30 weeks 6 days. so just a day shy of 31 weeks!! So I have been sitting on pins and needles waiting to get past that point in this pregnancy. I DID IT!!! so obviously pregnancy and labor and birthing have been on my mind alot lately and for those of you who don't know, I am going to be delivering at home!! I am doing a home birth. I wanted to do this with Elise but she had other ideas. which is ok because Elise needed to come her own way. I have a feeling that this one will be a little more cooperative. It is a boy and we are going to name him Ryan James!! isn't that a great name!! James is Jeremy's middle name. I have no idea if anyone but myself reads my blog. maybe, maybe not but its a place where I can express myself. almost like a journal but with the added benefit that maybe someone somewhere will read my thought.

Which brings me to why I am posting today!! I have been reading A LOT about birthing techniques and labor, both in the hospital and out of it. and something hit me the other day. most articles I have read or peoples opinions I have read on different blogs and some of my friends opinions have been that labor is SO hard and oh so painful. which don't get me wrong it is hard and painful. But from my experience with elise, its not THAT painful. at least not to the point where you have to have medical intervention in the form of an epidural. I mean if you go in prepared with knowing what your body is going through and what it might feel like, then its pretty managable. I am not saying its the most pleasure I have felt in my life, no way. it is painful. but I was able to get through it and be able to be in control of my daughters birth in stead of having to have someone else tell me when to push and not being able to feel anything from the waist down (that thought scared me more than the pain did!! I didn't want to feel like I was paralyzed!!) call me crazy. so back to my point. in all the stories these days that I have heard about people labors and briths is that they are started.... What? started? in all the reading i have done, the body knows what its doing and will go on its own..... but then how do they start them? with pitocen. a drug that is known to make labors longer and contrctions harder. The doctors know this about pitocen but do they tell the unsuspecting pregnant mothers this? NO! all that poor mother knows is that she is uncomfortable and ready for the baby to come out and the doctors want things to happen on THEIR schedule. NOT the bodies..... so they induce a labor when the body is not fully ready to have this baby and because its not progressing fast enough for them, they give them MORE pitocen! and then because of the pit the contractions are so hard and painful that the mothers can't (or don't want) to handle the pain and so they ask for an epidural to take the pain away. so then what happens? the labor all but comes to a screeching halt because the epidural block the body's natural cheical that makes it go into labor. then because it stops, they give more pitocen and more pitocen to get labor started again!! so then again contractions become harder and more intense than they ever should or could have been had they let themselves go naturally!!

Don't women see the correlation between these hard and painful labors and being started? and having the doctors give them pitocen and these super painful hard long contractions?!?!?! C'MON WOMEN OF THE WORLD!! EDUCATE YOURSELF AS TO WHAT YOUR BODY IS GOING WHEN YOU GET PREGNANT AND REALIZE YOUR POTENTIAL AS A CO-MAKER WITH HEAVENLY FATHER!! You can do SO MUCH more than this new overly medical-zed world will tell you about unless you educate yourself.!!!

ok enough of me being on my soapbox!! but hey isn't this my blog? don't I ge to talk about whatever I want to on MY blog?!!

Happy birthing ladies!!

3 comments:

Annie said...

I think natural birth is awesome. I also think modern medicine is wonderful. And I believe that any pregnant woman should be educated in both areas to make the best choice for her and the baby.

My water broke and I went in and they started me on pitocin. They started me on it at around noon, then I got an epidural at like 6, then had Conner at 10pm. So my labor and delivery went fairly fast (only 7 minutes of pushing).

Even with the epidural I was able to feel my legs and the contractions somewhat. (It just kind of felt like my legs were asleep which was slightly weird!) I knew when to push because I could still feel the contractions.

I'm really glad Conner was born in the hospital because we had no idea until after he was born that he had Congenital Heart Defects that would require open heart surgery.

I think a lot of the hospital experience has to do with your Dr. and the relationship you have with him/her and how well you both have prepared in advance for different situations. I have such a wonderful Doctor!

I was just reading on Baby center the other day about different women's explanation about how labor felt to them. Some described it as you did...really not that bad that it couldn't be handled naturally, while others describe it as the most horrific pain they could ever imagine. So it sounds like you got on the lucky end! ;)

I would love to prepare one day for natural birth, when I feel like I can commit to it 200%! I think it would be amazing! I'm not quite at that point yet, which is o.k. :)

Best of luck with your home birth! You will do so amazing and I can't wait to see pictures! And what a great name you guys picked!

Andy and Brooke said...

I totally look up to you and your ability to give birth naturally, and I do think about your opinions. I think with my next pregnancy, I will just wait for my water to break, and not be started. I don't think I could handle the pain though, I just don't think I am mentally there yet. ;-) Yes, the mind is such a powerful thing. I am super excited for you and Jeremy, and we need to get together sometime. We are now in Layton, so whenever you want to bop by, just let me know!

Megan Maughan said...

I don't know you, but I completely agree! I just had my 2nd baby 6 weeks ago and was induced. It was the most horrible experience I have ever been through! I went into labor on my own with our first. I was 40 weeks, 3 days. This time I was induced at 38 weeks 2 days. I developed PUPPS and it was horrible, excrutiating, painful, itching...and honestly I think I'd take the uncontrollable itching over being induced if I had to do it over! My labor was 13 hours long...which is about 5 hours longer than my first labor. It was much more painful, and much less pleasant! Not a birth I'd like to do over...of course to get the result I did, I'd do it, I'd do anything. But if I would have educated myself more, like you said I would have definitely opted out of being induced! I completely agree, women need to educate themselves, and realize that women have been doing this for millions of years WITHOUT MEDICAL INTERVENTION! There was a time when there were no epidurals or pitocin to start labor, and babies were born and the women were just fine! I can't preach about the epidural, I had one both times...however the 2nd time it didn't work like it should have and I honestly probably could have labored and delivered without it...I'm a whimp, but I know what I felt and I think not having it, wouldn't have been much worse. Anyway, enough of my rambling! Glad you shared this post! I agree with you!
P.S. Good luck with everything and congrats!