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Thanks for this article. When the on-call anaesthesiologist came into my labor room to introduce himself "for later - just in case", he seems surprised when I said "thank you, but I won't be needing your services". I knew that there are situations where an epidural may be necessary (just as there are fully-justified c-sections), but I also knew that my partner and I had spent weeks preparing ourselves for labor and delivery both physically and mentally (I can't say there was anyway to prepare emotionally!). We took a Birthing from Within class, studied pain management, talked over how we would handle emergency situations - in a word, we "practiced" as best we could. We wanted to be as prepared as possible for whatever would arise. The end result was a pain-medication-free labor and delivery, though my over-24-hour labor was augmented - after trying every trick in the book to regulate contractions, much thought and with my full consent - with Pitocin, magnesium and IV fluid as I had HELLP sydrome (and the only cure for that is delivery).

From speaking with other women about their labors/deliveries (some new mothers, some who are now grandmothers), it seems that some turn to the epidural simply because they do not have the tools to comfortably approach "getting through" childbirth. As pregnant women, we must take the matter into our own hands and educate ourselves on what pain management will work best for us before we find ourselves timing contractions. We don't live in a society where we are surrounded by our mothers, sisters and aunties during our labor - they are not there to breath with us (as my midwife did as I struggled to move from 8cm to 9cm), to tell us when to bear down, to encourage us to "get animal" and let our inhibitions go in order to allow our bodies to do what they were built to do. Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth was a great resource for me - both in helping me to overcome my (I think natural) fear of impending childbirth and also to see that babes are born in many ways...but the miracle is not in the getting there, but in the little life itself.

April 14, 2011 - 12:38am

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