So we obviouslyu have differing opinions on the childbirth-drug-pain thing. What are your views and how do you support them?

My view is this - God gave me wisdom. And he gave researchers and scientists wisdom to create pain killers. So use them if you need to.

I was in labor for 20 hours with Sarah. Actively pushing for 5 hours. She presented sunny-side up and got stuck, so I had to have an emergency c-section because she was going into fetal distress. I was in pain. A great deal of pain. Sure, had I been able to push her out in an hour or so, I might have managed the pain naturally. But 20 hours?

So my view is this - do whatever you need to do. How can I support my view? Because it's what I believe. We all have different pain tolerances. I wouldn't dream of judging anyone for using or not using drugs during delivery. It's none of my business what anyone else does. And it's none of anyone else's business what I did. It's an incredibly personal experience.

I agree with you, Lynn.. Pain relief has been made available to us. It is not dangerous, it makes labor and delivery go faster because the body can relax more. The whole birthing process progresses more smoothly and easily than when a woman is tense from the pain.

I didn't have pain killers for most of my labor. I enjoyed labor :lena: :screwy: . However after hours and hours of no progress - they gave me an epi to see if I could relax enough so "change" could happen. The epi was such a nice relief. I ended up having an emergency C and boy am I glad that the painkillers worked!
Most my friends ask for the epi right when they go into labor. They like having a quiet, relaxing birth rather than a tense, yelling "I'm gonna kill you for this" kind of birth...
I'm a big fan of painkillers :eyebrows: :bounce: :shh: :shakeit:

I don't want to ask but of the women here how many had "emergency c-sections"? it seems like these emergencies happen to everyone... I'm just curious...

I had an emergency C with my first...He was "stuck". I had an elective C with my second...

I didn't have painkillers at all and had all 3 vaginally. :thanks:

BUT. If I would've had to have an emergency C-section for whatever reason, I would've done it.

GM, you ENJOYED labour pains?? Yeah...:screwy: I held onto hubby for every contraction. He was NOT allowed to leave the room (unless he REALLY, REALLY had to pee), he had to assist me to the washroom, he had to do what I demanded...man, I felt SO powerful! :whip: I knew that wouldn't last....

I have a VERY HIGH pain threshold and nurses came in just to look at how calm I was. Nurses kept telling me "scream if you need to" and I just laid there breathing! LOL.
I actually watched Price is Right and other shows...watched my family eating lunch in front of me...it was all a great experience :dunno: :screwy: <--I know...

:lol: I watched figure skating. Whenever hubby changed the channels, I glared at him and demanded he turn it back. OR ELSE.

I pushed for 2 hours...or so I am told. I remember two pushes and I have apparently blocked the rest out. She was stuck and with 2 pulls with the vacuum she still wasn't coming. Was rolled down for a c section and come to find out she was 10 lb 9 oz! No way I could pass that!!

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Like Lynn said, I know NOTHING first hand about childbirth.

My wife teaches "The Bradley Method". She has 3-4 couples in our house every week and I've heard the curriculum preached at least a dozen times...overall, IMHO, Natural should be the goal, but mother and baby health over-rides everything.

I guess the delimma comes when uneducated couples give medical doctors, nurses and hospitals TOTAL control over THEIR entire birth process AND their bodies....rather than have a plan, people go in like it was an oil change in their vehicle. This should not be. Yes, there are times when emergencies happen, but women have been given birth for thousands of years and only with drugs and extreme intervention for the past hundred or so....

And since the advent of drugs and medical intervention, the mother/infant mortlity rate has dropped drastically.

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No doubt....




Why did God curse women with child pain only if "modern" science is to take it away?


Sounds like sin to me?


(ok...flame away)

Would you please stop derailing my thread??... :)

If you wanna talk about the morality of medically reducing physical suffering---START YOUR OWN THREAD!!! :gotcha:

Ooooo! Fight! Fight! Give 'em the pan! The pan! :lena:

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Hey the title of this thread is Pros and Cons for drugged childbirth....


Sounds like I'm right on target...

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You be quiet before I step on you.

:butt: :cheeky: :swoosh:

No, talking about whether it is a sin is a divergence...Thou shalt not diverge when discussing matters. Thou art to stick to the topic!

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So your saying that sining against God by taking "modern" drugs is NOT a con?

Ahh..But that is not what you were trying to debate.. You wanted to debate whether it was a sin or not, not whether it was a con or not! See you're even derailing your own derail...

:doh:

It sounds kind of wierd but I would be so proud of my wife if she had our kids naturally. I'd be introducing her like, "This is my wife, she had our kids naturally so don't mess with her." or "This is my wife, she's bad ass, she's way tougher than me. She had our kids naturally!" I'd be so proud! We're developing a birth plan and we are aware that if there is an emergency then we'll have to deviate but we feel like there are way, way too many "emergency c-sections" done. Talking to surgeons I know they would rather c-section then vaginally deliver a child. For them it is all about time and you can essentially do the c-section whenever the child is fully developed. The waiting on the vaginal birth can take up a ton of time and their time is precious. I don't consider the "time" aspect as being an emergency... any thoughts?

Vaginal delivery is fine, but why, if it is possible to prvent or minimize it, would you want her to feel the pain of the uterine cramps, the vaginal stretching and posibly the pain of flesh tearing?? Just to be able to say "I'm proud"..??? An epidural at least will make the process a whole lot easier. The body is able to progress more quickly in dilating and effacing, and the contractions are much more productive, al because the pain isn't felt. Because you don't feel the pain, you relax and are able to let the body do its thing without tensing up and slowing it down..

In my opinion the pain and suffering, that are avoidable, aren't worth boosting a man's pride..

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How bout a woman's?

I know my wife is happy with hers....


Many women feel like it's a "rite of passage"....it's natural, and it's how God intended it.

Actually God never intended for us to suffer. In the garden we messed up and brought that nasty side effect upon ourselves...


Nope. Bragging rights aren't valid enough reasons IMO...

I cannot take pain. there is no way in the world I would want to intentionally put my body through that..

Same for me.

First one got stuck (even had marks on her little bitty head). Second was elected. But he was 3 months premature anyway, and I'm so grateful he wasn't born in a vaginal delivery - too many side-effects for preemies born that way.

How true is that for all medical care though?

Not to sound too hippy and all but I'm not really into the drug thing at all. I never take asperin and am on no type of medication. I take a vitamins and other supplements but I don't think most medications are good for you. My BIL is an orthopedic surgeon and he is always telling me how much drug companies are flying him all over the world to exotic resorts to try and get him to prescribe their products. He says it is very hard not to get caught up in it. I refuse to take pain medications because they essentially are just covering up a symptom instead of solving the problem.

I believe that modern medicine has it's place and in the case of life or death all avenues should be researched and then taken (if the risk isn't too great). If my wife's or my child's life were on the then I would pump her full of drugs and cut her open myself if that's what it took. I think that we tend to rely too much on drugs in our society... IMHO of course...

I don't mind the drugs when I agree it's time for them.
It should be left up to your wife - she'll be the one in pain. My friend had her kid w/o drugs. She wanted them, hubby didn't "allow" it. She was miserable and HATES the entire birth experience. She's still a mess - 4 years later but her hubby parades her around like a trophy...Nice... :doh:

Guess I can agree with goofymom.....


It should be 51% wifey's choice and 49% hubbys....


I also agree with seigebro...but let me add this....meds are for weak. (oops did I just say that?)

When I crap my watermelon, it will be drug-free baby.

The problem with medical interventions is that they often lead to more interventions. Epidurals do not speed up labor, they generally slow it down. Also, when they give you meds they base it on your weight. Your baby weighs a 10th or 20th of what you do. The placenta does nothing to filter those drugs. Whatever is in you is in your baby. Drugs lead to sleepy babies, which can cause problems with nursing and other stuff, as well.

Now for you men, my husband is a chiropractor, every pregnant woman he has treated has flown through labor, if it was their second child, it was so much better than the first, blah, blah, blah. When I was pregnant with my first we took a Bradley course and fully planned on doing a natural birth and my husband planned on using me as an example to show everyone how great chiropractic is for pregnancy and labor and delivery. I did not fly through labor. I ended up having a C-section, but he is still proud of me, because I did what I had to do to make sure both me and our baby lived through delivery. Our second was also an emergency C-section. He was a preemie and would not have survived a vaginal birth. Our third will be a scheduled C-section because the risk is too high for a VBAC.

So, I guess I'm kind of rambling, but what I want to say is that I think natural, drug-free is best, it's not worth sacrificing your life or your baby's just to have the experience.

Umm even though I'm a guy and should shut the hell up when it comes to these topics.....

:soapbox:
Yup Time for Raspy's Soapbox........


I think as a guy I should keep my nose out of it as long as it doesn't have any adverse efects on my kids or her.....

Wife needs to get doped up I'll kick the "Dr. Feelgood" in the junk if he doesn't get his ass over there fast enough..... If she wants to go natural I'll jab that needle through his heart if he gets anywhere near her....

Okay I'm done.....

you have a way with words...
:tease: :haha: :P

Wow, didn't think this would turn into a "hands off my body" talk but I'm going to have to disagree with you. I don't think it's 51% hers and 49% his or anything like that. When we were married we are 100% in this together. Whatever decision we make needs to be made by both of us. Obviously I'm not going to pull the "Submit" card on her and tell her to go natural but I do feel that she doesn't have the "right" to say "I'm doing this my way, to hell with you" either. We need to come to a decision together that we are both supportive of. If she wanted to use drugs then she would probably need to talk to me about her reasons and we'd do some research and see if that was best for us and our child then come to a decision together. If we couldn't reach an understanding then I think it would be best not to get pregnant at all.

As it is she wants to go naturally to but fears she would easily get talked into pain meds or a c-section because so many women are now-a-days. We just have to talk about and work out when we'll give up on our birth plan and go with the c-section route or whatever, like under what circumstances will we go that route. The point is we'll do it together- she doesn't get to say "nope, you're not involved in this part" we're a team, a unit, "one flesh" and all that.

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amyroo is my hero.

:clap:

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All I meant was that it was more her decision than hubbys....

You can't agree 100% on everything....shoot, we're LUCKY if we agree at all...hehe.

I was induced due to medical problems. Pitocin is NOT a pleasant drug....when the contractions started I was in major pain from the get-go. I had an IV painkiller which was awesome, and by the time that wore off I had progressed enough for the epidural.

I was a happy camper....

I do NOT have a high tolerance for pain, and if I have to childbirth again, I'm having the drugs again....no doubt....

:thanks:

I have a low pain tolerence.

With Katheryn the nurses said they would give me something to help me sleep and came to find out later it was a half shot of demerol. I'd did have a local for the episiotomy.

With Liam I had nothing at all. It was the most excrutiating physical pain of my life. He came very fast and intensely unlike my daughter who was much slower and never reallt hurt that much.

I would go pain free again even though I still remember Liam's birth accutely. I think it's just better all around. Anything I could take for the pain would find it's way to the baby and that includes epidurals. Statistically epidurals SLOW down labor wich then causes further interventions and then you start on that slippery slope towards and emergency c-section.

I do think parents need to be more proactive in their pregnancies and labor and not just follow what someone says because they have "Dr." in front of their name. When the c-section rate is about 20% higher for OB deliveries vs. midwife deliveries in low risk pregnancies then something's not right. The only way you can protect yourself and your baby is to be informed.

I've been doing some googling and have read many contradicting things about epidurals and slowing labor. Some say tht it may slow labor if given in the early stages, some say that it only slows labor 20-40 minutes, an some say that it can speed up labor.

I found a good article that details both the benefits and potential risks:

Here is the article

From the things I've read, it varies from person to person whether or not epidural is more beneficial or detrimental. In my own case it helped a lot. I was 42 weeks preg adn had not gone into labor naturally. I was induced and was not progressing very quickly at all. 12 hours later the pain was enough that I asked for some pain meds, they checked my cervix and I was dilated to 5 cm. They said I could have epidural at that time. I said YES! Ater the insertion I began to relax. I even ent to sleep. My contractions and dilation increased while I rested. That was the best part. I was able to relax and not be so tense. Finally when It was time to push I still felt the pressure, but not the pain, so I was able to be fully aware of what was going on. However my mind has blocked it for some reason or other and I only reemember those first couple of opushes. After two hours of pushing and the doctor pulling twice with the vacuum. I was wheeled down for a c-section. My c-section was not due to the epidural at all. My child was just huge and stuck. In my experience the epidural was beneficial. Another thing is that it is injected into the spinal column, and not directly into the blood stream, so there is a lesser chance of the meds getting into the baby's bloodstream. IV meds, however, carry more risks. I have no experience with them and I haven't researched them at this point.

Man, all this childbirth talk reminds me that I so don't want to do it again....