You'd have to be crazy...

I was just doing a little light reading about the medical risks associated with Epidural Anesthesia (sarcasm). And it made me want to post it here. I can't count the number of times I've heard people say, "you'd have to be crazy not to get an epidural." At first, this always made me mad. Now it's just kind of funny. It's funny because in my head I'm thinking, "You'd have to be crazy to get one." But I don't really believe that. It's totally natural to want to avoid pain. I get that. Believe me, I have the lowest pain tolerance in the history of man. I nearly passed out the last time I had to get blood drawn. I cry when I get a headache. I could go on. The point is, you don't have to be superwoman to give birth without medication or any medical intervention at all.

Someone asked me how I made it through birth. The first time I made it through because I had heard so many awesome stories about natural birth and I wanted to experience it for myself. It's not like these women love pain, but at that point every woman I knew who had gone natural had a positive experience with birth. And everyone I had known who had not gone natural had horror stories. Things have changed since then for sure. I know plenty of women who have birth experiences that are just fine and they had epidurals. I still don't know anyone who had a completely natural birth and had a bad experience though.

With Noah, I didn't have that motivation anymore, because I'd already had that experience. I got through it with him because I sincerely believe with all my being that it is the best (most healthy, least risk involved) way to give birth. Again, epidurals aren't evil, but I'm not willing to take the risk. Anytime I would think, 'this pain could be over in an instant' I just reminded myself of all the things I know to be true about epidurals, and even the other medical pain relief they offer. And I sobered up. Here is a link to that article:
http://www.healing-arts.org/mehl-madrona/mmepidural.htm#medical_risks_epidurals_cesarian

But I'll add my own, non-medical risks: it might not work! I personally know two women whose epidurals just plain didn't work. So they went in thinking they would have no pain and they had all kinds of pain. That would suck more than anything I think. Maybe it was doctor error, but either way not fun. Also, you can avoid unnecessary intervention. With the freedom to move around you can almost always avoid the use of extraction devices and episiotomy (if you have a doctor/midwife who knows what they're doing).

One of the scariest, and most common problems with epidurals is that the anesthesia used in the process passes through the placenta. You read that right! If you aren't allowed to have ibuprofen while you're pregnant why on earth would an OB think it's a good idea to put a local anesthetic into your system (not to mention the drugs used to induce women). Yikes.

All that to say, I still believe it's just one day. Pain during childbirth was a result of the fall. It's not morally wrong to try to reduce or eliminate that pain! I reminded myself that even if I had to have a c-section I would still be going home with a baby at the end of the day. That's what is most important. But I do believe that all our decisions matter. We just need to find the balance of those things.

Rant.Over.