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I had my first child 18 months ago and am hoping to fall pregnant shortly! I agree with you when you say that childbirth is overmedicalized and that you wish to have a midwife present. With my first child i gave into every whim of the doctors! being scared and unsure of what was going to happen! first they induced me, for what in hiensight was absolutley no reason (except that the birthing rooms were full with people outside in labour!) because of being induced i was there fore attached to a machine which made me bedridden (unable to engage in pacing or moving about all i could do was lie there and feel the pain!) then after being induced the contractions quickly went from being bearable with breaks, to no breaks in between contractions whatsoever. it was horrible! i lasted a fair while without any pain relief but ended up having an epidural as people were complaining about how loud i was yelling and i freaked out completly and gave up. they then gave me an episiotomy and a vac_m delivery and i am to this day in pain from this proceedure. i think they cut through nerves because it hurts from lower back to above the knee although the doctors say this is normal (they did not imform me beforehand!!!!) afterwards i was given panadol for the pain.This also made b___stfeeding harder as sitting was excruciating normally let alone holding a baby. I was begging to go home because getting in and out of bed to get the baby was horrible and i wanted my husband to help me,l however they would not discharge me until day four. Giving birth unfortunatly was a horrible experience for me, it hurt so much is has taken me ages to think about doing it again! i am convinced all the interferance is the cause of the horrible experience. as hard as it will be for you to go natural i think that you should try as hard as you can and get lots of good information on breathing exercises. Dont let them do what they did to me! It zapped my confidence as a mother before i even began and i am only just getting back on track. but keep in mind it does HURT LIKE HELL! i dont think its because theyre arrogant that theyre saying what theyre saying, i think its quite reasonable to think that you will have pain relief because it hurts so much.

pickles....that is a horrible situation. I was given an episiotomy with my first for no reason other then the doctor wanted to speed things up. i couldn't sit for weks without that pain and after that s_x was unbearable. i'd go for another...let you midwife know exactly how the first birth went don;t hold anything back. let them know what you hated and don't want again. my midwife and i talked she understood everything and was 100 % on doing the birth my way. i actually tore with the birth of my second but nothing even close to the episiotomy they gave me with the first. it was actually a completely different spot and required about 10 stiches but i never really felt pain from it except the normal itching of the stiches healing. i was later told that most times if you really needed the episiotomy then tore the next time it would be the same place. i can't see how i ever needed an epsiotomy the first time since my daughter was a full pound lighter then my second. try to forget the pain of the first labor and go in believeing in yourself. you'd be surprised how little pain is actually felt when you can control it with your mind.

Hi, I have decided the same thing. I am going NATURAL also. I know it will be very very hard but well worth it in the end. I dont believe in taking something unless absolutly nessary , like an emergency C-section. I am with you all the way!!! :-)

I will share this however, for all you ladies that want to go natural. And yes, I did it with my first and am glad I did because now I know how to push. HOWEVER, though my baby boy came out with ONE push, after the head comes out, the rest of the body is supposed to just come right out. There was a short period that one of his shoulders got stuck. This is a potential MAJOR problem that can affect them for the rest of their life. My little Justin was fine but they said if he was a little bit bigger, it could have been a major problem . The point is, by the time they're able to see a potentail problem like that, if you have no drugs in you, getting some into you is that much more difficult at that point because you're in so much pain. I wound up with a single st_tch, no episiotomy, but I'm pregnant again. This doctor said that an episiotomy or c-sectioin, would completely alleviate any chance that that could happen again with this baby and it's just not a chance you can take. It can cause them to not be able to move their arm for their whole life, I forget exactly what it's called. But women with a flatter pelvic area have this trouble. Mine was just enough okay but too much of a risk with the next baby. They said it's a shame for someone like me with such an easy delivery for the most part to have to have a c-section, but an epsiotomy would give that much more room. IF, at that point with my first, had I really needed an episiotomy, injecting drugs into me would have been very difficult at that point. If I just had an epidural from the beginning, I wouldn't have felt any type of drugs or injections going in and it would have been a safer situation. I'm SO glad it worked out without drugs the first time so I really know how to push with the next with an epidural in me. Just consider the potential last minute problems that could possibly come up that you would never think of. IF that happened, you would need and want to have something in you. I'm saying that only because it's nothing I thought of before. It never would have occured to me. I simply thought, 'I can bare the pain, don't need any drugs'. I had the healthiest and speediest of pregnancies and deliveries and still had a possible emergency situation.