Why Natural Childbirth
Why Have a Natural Birth? In the absence of a true medical complication, a drug-free birth is the safest for the mother and the baby.
Any drug a mother takes crosses the placenta and enters the baby’s bloodstream, including epidural anesthesia. (If you do not believe this, just ask the nurses who take care of babies whose mothers have had epidurals during labor!) The Committee on Drugs of the American Academy of Pediatrics states, “There is no drug, whether over the counter remedy or prescription, which when taken by the child-bearing woman has been proven safe for the unborn child.”
The kind of pregnancy, labor and birth we provide for our children has a profound and lifelong effect on their health, including physical, mental, and emotional health. A healthy pregnancy and a natural birth gives babies the best possible start in life.
Natural childbirth has a positive effect on family bonding. It unites the husband and wife during the preparation process and then in working together during the birth itself. After birth, the mother and baby are alert and responsive, not impeded by drugs in their bodies, which promotes better bonding and the ability to breastfeed immediately after birth. In addition, babies are less likely to need medical treatment in the minutes and hours after birth, avoiding the separation of mother and child.
Natural childbirth is also, in most cases, shorter and easier than medicated births. It is well known that pain relief drugs used in labor often slow labor down and interfere with the natural production of hormones necessary for the labor and postpartum period. Natural childbirth mothers tend to recover from birth faster and have an easier time breastfeeding and may experience less postpartum depression.
There are secondary effects from labor drugs like epidurals. The mother’s blood pressure may drop. She may develop a fever in labor, resulting in invasive testing for her newborn. She will be limited to being in bed with a fetal monitor and other devices restricting her. The epidural may be “spotty”, giving a worse sensation than before. It could cause headaches, nausea, or difficulty breathing. The baby might not tolerate this well and “go into distress”. The list goes on, but the point is that a woman gives up more than she might expect with the decision to use drugs to manage labor. I realize that not everyone has a bad experience with epidurals, but for those who do, it really makes for a difficult experience. The “horror” stories you may hear about labor may not really be caused by the natural process of birth, but rather by the drugs used during birth!
One medical intervention often leads to another. This “cascade effect” as it is called, can turn a normal, safe birth into one full of medical interventions, dramatically increasing risk. When considering an intervention always ask: “does this procedure’s benefit outweigh the risk to me or my baby?”
Too often, drugs in childbirth do not take away pain the way mothers had hoped or they simply delay the pain until after the birth. Most people have heard mothers with medicated births talk about the pain and trauma of birth while prepared natural childbirth mothers simply talk about their hard work and the great feelings of accomplishment afterwards.
Intentional natural childbirth can be an empowering, exciting, and wonderful experience! It is a great feeling to be able to give birth to your baby without the constraints of “the machines that go ping”, and just be free to be yourself– allowing your body to follow the natural process the way it is designed to! The benefits are great for the mother, the baby, and the whole family!