You Can Have a Baby Without An Epidural

I am a nurse, birth doula, and mom. I come from a family with an OB/GYN Dad and Labor and Delivery Nurse Mom. I have a lot of useful information surrounding me.

During my pregnancy this information was super helpful, but I still had fears. I was still very anxious because this was the first time I was going to have a baby.

I was a watermelon grower, and it HIT ME: “Oh my goodness, he has to COME OUT. There is NO going back.”

With that in mind, I wanted to prepare for the mountain in front of me. I had to create a plan that was going to help me get ready for birth, but I did not know EXACTLY how I was going to do this. It was a little bit of an experiment. 

I started with asking lots and lots of questions to my parents ESPECIALLY 2 months before my due date. I asked every question I could possibly think of, and I asked if there were questions I wasn’t thinking of…and there were many!

I wanted to imagine the process in my mind. I wanted to know how the contractions would feel. I wanted to know when the contractions would get stronger, when I needed to go to the hospital, what would happen when I got to the hospital…?

On and on my questions tumbled out in droves…

But let me tell you, the biggest decision I had to make was whether I was going to get an epidural or if I was not going to get an epidural.

I settled on this: “No, I do not want an epidural”.

The problem was when people would ask me about my birth plan. I would tell them, “No, I am not going to have an epidural.” Then, all of these “experienced” mothers would say, “Ok, Yeah! I didn’t want either but then when my contractions got to this point and I had labored for this many hours I said ‘I have to have one’ and I couldn’t deal with the pain anymore. So you will probably do the same thing.”

HONESTLY, I got a little tired of hearing all of the “horror stories” these moms said to me. I was discouraged by all of the times I heard, “You CAN’T do it.” It was defeating.

Then I met this ONE WOMAN. Who was about my age and had a son of her own. She asked me about my pregnancy. I started to tell her about my plans and how I was not going to have an epidural because I wanted to give birth naturally.

I told her I was getting a lot of negative feedback and I was starting to become discouraged.

She stopped me before I could even finish and she said, 

“Ok, stop listening to all of that negative talk. This is a beautiful thing, and you can do it. Of course, there is a ring of fire, and it burns! But it is not as bad as everyone keeps telling you it is. And when you hold your baby it is worth it, you forget about it. Yeah you are a little bit sore, but you’re just so excited that you just bonded with your baby through all of that hard work. The sweat and the tears of pain and joy are worth it. You don’t care anymore. It is only beautiful!”

Second, find a story that will motivate you to keep your plan. I watched a movie a month before I delivered. That movie was Mama Mia 2. There is this one part in the movie where the main character is on an island in Greece, in the middle of nowhere. She is living in this old farm house, and she is all by herself.

The music starts playing.

You see her laboring, you see her walking around sweating, and then she delivers her baby.

It was so beautiful!

I walked out of the movie and told my husband, “If she can do it out in the middle of nowhere, in Greece, all by herself in a farmhouse, then I can do this in a hospital with support around me!”.

Maybe that seems a bit dramatized, and when I look back it is kind of funny because it was just a movie. She wasn’t really laboring… it was fake. But when I think about it, I know that there really ARE women around the world that are like that girl in the movie.

For thousands of years, and even today, thousands of women around the world are delivering their babies without pain medicine. There is something to be said about that kind of courage and creation.

This hard process, this hard work to bond with your baby is courageous. When your baby is delivered, there is more bonding. You worked extremely hard, but you received a prize from all of your hard work.

Me:

I didn’t get the encouragement I needed at first.

I found encouragement.

I gave birth without an epidural.

I was FEARLESS and I had the birth of my dreams. 

I am sitting here, having the opportunity to tell you that this is beautiful!

For all of these reasons I created Pearently Natural Birth. 

Do you want some help making a plan for birth? I have created my FREE Natural Birth Workbook just for you. This 4 Step Process is a great start if you are considering a med-free birth. Download below…