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Hi jenniberry, I havent decided on whether I am going natural or not yet - but I think you sound very sure about what you want your experience to be so just keep what you want in mind and forget about the other peoples negative comments - unfortunately everyone has an opinion on birth - even people who havent given birth! At this stage I am going to try to hack it as much as I can but I have been looking into pain relief also as I dont know how strong i will be. I wish you all the luck in the world and I know of many friends who have had natural births and say it was a wonderful experience for them. Just stick to what you want, listen to the people who are positive and try as best you can to ignore the negitive ones - just because they used pain relief doesnt mean you will. Let us know how you go!!! :)

Good for you. I my self couldn't tollerate the pain with my first child and had an epidural. I have a friend who has had both of her girls under the care of a midwife and had wonderful experiences both times. She told me that the jacuzzi tub made it bareable. I wish you luck and a healthy baby. :o}

i went natural and i would never have it any other way. giving birth with drugs is like having s_x and trying not to orgasm, you miss the euphoria and ecstacy. yes it can and usually does hurt but not always. regardless, its not the pain of an injury more like the pain of excersize. you should read ina mays guide to childbirth, its an easy read and inspiring! just flip through it and it'll be worth your while. my labor was HARD but ONLY because i had 3hours of sleep in the 48hours before i birthed my son thanks to his dad dissappearing and then us fighting unfortunatly. then when labor got steady i had 4 hours of rushes only 3-4min apart then the last 10hours i had rushes every 2min or less!! talk about exhuasting! but thats unusual. i pushed for 10min...and pushing was what made the pain stop, i was yelling but not becuase i was uncomforrtable or hurting but for the same reason body builders yell when they lift those huge weights. it was like gathering up my power. i know next time will be much easier because i will be rested and will have a much more supportive partner who i can relax around. oh and a little advise, during pushing if you can keep your mouth and jaw and throat relaxed you probably wont tear (i did and it stung for a second no worse than a hang nail, don't push through burning like some people say, slow down and relax, its your body helping you prevent a tear) to relax your mouth if its hard for you too you can b__w raspberries which may make you laugh, which also works or you can attempt to sing. i wish i had known that before i gave birth i think it would have helped. you'll be fine you and your husband sound like you trust birth...good for you!!!

oh i forgot. something to think about...enduring pain in labor usually means you have a painless postpartum (or close to painless) when you have to take care of a newborn, versus taking pain meds and avoiding pain in labor you usually are accepting much more pain after while trying to care for your baby whether from the episiotomy or forcepts/vacc_me extraction the drugs led to or the c section of the ediduaral headache or backache that can last for years. my friends sister couldn't feel that she needed to move becuase of the epidural, so when all she needed to do was lean forward or get on her hands and knees to give her baby room to turn, she bruised her baby's face with her spine thereby damaging her spine. she had bells palsy and looked like half her face was melting for 4 months. they didn't know if it would be permanent or not. how scary! the real question is whether you want to be comfortable during your first days with your baby or not. the more pain you expect the more likely it will be painful and fear makes it much worse. sorry i have so much to say on this but i really loved all the help i got and want to pa__s it on. oh, i i had people "betting" on me too. it so rude and arrogant! they are just intimidated by you.

Jenniberry, I 100% agree with your choice. My first dd was born in a hospital and that was your typical degrading (emotionally and physically) experience. Due to that horrible experience I decided with my 2nd dd to have a midwife and home birth. It was the most wonderful, healthy and positive and EMPOWERING experience! All my friends and basically anyone thought I was nuts to do such a selfish thing as a home birth. It is such a tradgedy and shame women do not trust more in themselves and nature and midwives. Good luck!!!!!

I went completely natural. I had a Home Birth. I switch to a mid-wife home birth at 36 weeks pregnant because my ob basically told me I didn't want to have natural and I could have my baby after she exam him and bathed him. I read that your baby does best if b___stfeed within the first hour of being born and I wanted to try b___stfeeding him right away. I was so upset when my ob objected to my idea of a birth. So I cried to my mom (who was my coach, the baby's father gave me a choice of the baby or him I choose the baby and haven't seen him since) My mom had my brother and I at a bradley birthing center, but the center closes right after I was born. so we were at our bradley birthing cla__s and after cla__s I was discussing with my instructor what i wanted at my birth. She said why don't you try a home birth. I said I was worried about the mess. she a__sured me that my house would be spotless by the time they leave. So I went and saw a midwife at 36 weeks and fell in love. My exams went from 5 minutes of just measuring my stomach and listening to the baby's heart to 1/2 hour appointments where the mid-wife helped me feel where my baby was in my stomach and explaining things. She would also ask my opinion on what I wanted to do when labor started. Give me suggestions on comfort. I love my midwife. When I have my next child it will be a home birth again. Labor really doesn't hurt that much, especially when you can labor in different positions. I think that is a major problem with hospital births, they tell you to lay on your back. I was on my back and it hurt so the midwife suggested going on all fours the pain seemed to dissipate and felt more like exercise that I was being force to do. I love it don't let anyone discourage you DO IT you will love it.

I give the up most credit to anyone who can go through birth naturally. I, however, could not. I had back labor which only makes it worse. I went to 7 cms without pain meds, but after that..it got too unbearable. I was happy with my decision when it came to my labor though- my baby was 9lbs 5oz and I got a 2nd degree tear. After that, they couldn't stop the bleeding and were wrenching on my uterus. They said if I hadn't had the epi, the after part would've been horrible. Anyways, goodluck to you! Just keep in mind, the only important thing at the end is a healthy mom and a healthy baby. It doesn't matter how that's achieved.

I commend you for planning to go natural, and also for making the decision to be at the local hospital in case something goes wrong. I don't want to scare you and emphasize what happened to me is RARE, but my advice is to be prepared for anything. I too planned to go natural, but with my OB. If I had been so foolish as to try a home birth, my baby would have died. While a home birth sounds wonderful in theory and I'm sure is a great experience if things go right, if something goes wrong during labor it can be a disaster. My baby came three weeks early. My problem was that my labor was rocket speed (I got to the hospital less than an hour after I went into labor and then within 30 minutes dilated from a 2 to a 10 and hit the pushing stage- so fast the nurses didn't even realize what was going on until I was there) and my baby was still small enough that somehow she flipped breach during labor. She had been in position head down just 2 days earlier when I was at the doctor. This is very rare, but it can happen. My body was in the pushing stage before anyone realized it, and she was completely stuck and being jammed up against my rib cage with contractions (which I later found out was why things were horribly painful for me- she was basically battering my insides with every contraction). She was stuck b___t down with her legs and feet pointed up to her neck. There was no way she was coming out naturally. Luckily there were fantastic nurses who knew from my pain and screaming (and my sudden screaming demands for the epidural that I had initially told them in no uncertain terms there was NO WAY I was having) that something was not right. One of the nurses realized that not only was I surprisingly at a 10, but more importantly what she was feeling was not the baby's head, and knowing there wasn't much time, she grabbed an ultrasound machine from down the hall which she wasn't even sure how to run, to try to figure out the problem, was able to figure out the baby was upside down and stuck, and got my doctor out of a patient appointment at the building next door and had her running to get to me like an episode out of ER. By that time the anesthesiologist they had called due to my sudden epidural demand had arrived, and they had to give me drugs to try to slow down the labor long enough so that they could get me to the OR for a spinal block and emergency C-Section and save the baby. There was a lot of running and yelling. I'm lucky they didn't smash my gurney into the wall because all of the people pushing it and around me were running at top speed to the OR. (I never thought I would be happy to have a spinal, but I was thrilled when the pain stopped). Thank God for the nurses and the doctors because they got me to the OR and saved my baby. She was black and blue with bruises on her head, b___t, back, and legs, but a CT scan of her head showed everything was normal and there was no internal head injury. If I had tried a home birth, there is no way there would have been time to get me to the hospital and save her. I definitely would have lost her. Again, what happened to me was rare, but nobody expects that kind of thing to happen to them, I certainly didn't. That said, had I not had the problems I had, I firmly believe that I could have gone natural all the way (especially since I would have had an extremely short labor- probably 1 1/2 hours total), and I think you can too. I think it is wonderful that you are going to try. I would recommend that you be sure that there will be doctors nearby in the hospital in case of emergency, and an anesthesiologist available just in case you change your mind about going natural during labor and want an epidural. My advice is just to be prepared for anything because things don't always go like you planned. I still laugh about my "perfect birth plan". Go for it and good luck. I hope it turns out wonderful for you.

Im planning on going to hospital with an OB, simply because my good friend last year was in hospital giving birth, and halfway through the delivery, her heart stopped beating. Had she not been in hospital, they would not have had the time to revive her and perform a csection to save the baby. Let me tell you her husband was a mess that day! That was enough for me to say i want hospital precautions every time. You may never use them, but its nice to know they're there.

K, if your baby was breech as it sounds like it from your description, this would have been easily detected by midwife and you would not have been able to have a home birth anyway... My dd was breech and I was told if she remained in that position when my water broke or contractions started I would have to birth in a hospital... In any case I had an appt everyother day past my due date and she turned around.

Franny, K stated that her baby changed position DURING LABOR. Read line 8 again.

Thanks MJVdec01. Yes, she flipped during labor. Dr. said it is very rare, but it sometimes happens. She did hang out breach or sideways the majority of time during pregnancy (occasionally turning head down for short periods) before finally flipping head down to stay about a week before I went into labor. She was definitely head down 2 days before when I saw the Dr. Dr.'s best guess is because she was three weeks early and still small enough to move around, that when the contractions started (and they were pretty intense and fast from the beginning) it maybe scared her and she flipped herself to the position where she felt most secure. There is no way I would have had time to call the midwife; get her to my house; have her realize there was a problem and still have gotten to the hospital in time to save the baby.

K, I understand your hesitancy for home birth, but I do not know a midwife who would have delivered a baby at home 3 weeks early anyway.... My point being that midwives are very cautious in home delivery. If they believe the baby to be low birth weight, breech, early, etc they will not deliver at home in any case. Anyway, I had a home birth with my 2nd. My first was a hospital disaster.

Food for thought: An estimated 85% of people alive in our world today were born at home...

I was born at home so I have a good vibe about midwives. I myself went to the hospital in my early 2nd trimester since I had health insurance with my job, but I lost my job and hated being treated like a herd of cattle at the hospital so I went to a birthing center in the area and plan on having my baby there. They are not nurse midwives, just state licensed midwives. There will not be pain medication available, which is kind of intimidating, but I know I can do it. I want what is best for my little one and I want to feel all the labor and be able to work with my body and follow its signals. The hospital is close by and my pregnancy thus far has been textbook perfect. My midwife is very picky about the babies she will deliver and is very aware of her limitations so I feel very confident in my decision. I'm excited and nervous. Best of luck to everyone!

I'm planning to go natural with this one, my third. I'm going to deliver in a hospital, because it's the only way insurance will cover, and I'll need IV antibiotics, but other than that it's going to be natural. That's the plan. With my first son, I had a small shot of nubain about half way through, and it made me so nauseated and sick -- I just don't want to go through that again. My husband and all my family think I'm crazy, and, like yours, have taken bets on how long before I ask for an epi. But I agree with you and your midwife -- birth is a Natural process, and so many doctors and hospitals treat it as though it's unnatural. So my OB is a little upset with me, because I'm so insistent, but he's going to go along with it, because I told him that's how it has to be. That might sound arrogant... but remember. It's your baby, and YOUR delivery. At the risk of sounding like a burger king commercial, I recommend having it your way. You'll feel so much more empowered and so much more ready for things if you're in charge. So go for it, and GOD BLESS YOU!