Friday, July 18, 2008

I must be a Dinosaur!!

...you know sometimes I think it is a thing of the past. Natural Childbirth I mean! It's a very rare thing on my unit to have a mom come in saying she has a doula and will Not be getting an epidural. Very rare! Almost nonexistant!! I'm starting to think I'm some sort of dinosaur!! Seriously! I pushed out 4 babys, the first being almost 12lbs. ( 11-7 3/4lbs to be exact) and I had no pain medication. Oh yeah it hurt, but I knew having a baby was suppose to hurt to some degree! I mean I expected discomfort and was prepared for it. I read like a feign before going into labor. My doc had No idea I was having a Humongous child lol. Boy you can imagine the look on His face when the nurse weighed him!

But it was not unbearable pain. As you moms know, its a hard pain to describe..so I'm struggling to find the words to describe how I felt. But I knew it was work I had to do to birth my baby. I didn't scream. I didn't say nasty things. I didn't panic and I didn't freak out. Weird huh?

I just don't get it today. No one seems worried about the possible effects epidurals could have on our babys. They haven't been around long enough to truly know if there are any problems or lingering aftereffects. I often wonder if epidurals have any relation to the large increase in Autism. Its true today as it was 25 yrs ago. Everything you put in your body is absorbed and is filtered thru the baby. All of it. I think maybe we just don't know if there is any correlation. Time will tell tho.

I watched a few YOUTUBE video's of home births the other day. I have to say that the women delivering their babys without any pain medication have the same level of discomfort as the women I assist in delivery today With an epidural.
The funny thing (to me) is that woman are Surprised and Shocked to feel anything with their epidural. Seriously!! They say "I can feel something!! Make it stop!" Usually its the babys head decending. They don't like it that they still feel that. Some ask me to call for epi bolus's. Lucky for them I can administer a small bolus without calling the Doc.

Last night I had a girl who was just blown away that she was having rectal pressure. LOL, I said "honey you are Going to feel that. You need to push your baby out!! I can'ttttt she crys. I didn't feel anything with my last baby!" Simply amazing.
So I thought I'd share one special YOUTUBE video of women having multiple births "Au Natural". It's beautiful in my eyes. Omgosh I really loved this video!

Yeah, I think I'm a dinosaur lol.

9 comments:

Just Me said...

Having had two babies....the first WITH an epidural because I was scared into it....and the second COMPLETELY NATURAL with no pain meds at all...I would have to say that if I had to do it all over again (and I'm not!)...I would go natural. It was just a much nicer feeling afterwards, being able to walk to the shower 20 minutes after delivering, instead of lying in bed getting a sponge bath and not being able to get up for several hours because I couldn't move! Ugh.

Jody said...

Didn't you just Love that video!!

Anonymous said...

I think, in an ideal world where insurance companies didn't dictate who gets to do what, we'd see a surge in natural unmedicated births and the c-section, both first birth and subsequent would drop.

However, patients need to advocate for themselves and someone, I don't know who, but someone needs to tell the insurance companies (both health and malpractice -because if malpractice rates weren't what they are, then more docs wouldn't be scared into letting women go naturally and not rush them into the OR) to butt the hell out.

Not only that, it's a societal thing as Americans...we want it now, we want it fast, we want it HOW WE WANT IT which usually means without pain and with as little effort as possible.

I could go on and on and on about this because it's a two-pronged issue and it needs to be approached with both tact and sensitivity...something I haven't got a whole lot of right now having been kept up most of the night by a barfing teenager and a toddler who didn't think sleep was anywhere in her immediate future.

Nice video Joanne. Thanks for sharing it.

Auds at Barking Mad
www.abritandabit.typepad.com

Nurse Lochia said...

I absolutely loved that video! I'm such an emotional person that it actually brought tears to my eyes! I so agree, why can't we just let nature take it's course? Why can't we see what happens? Birth is such a beautiful event that usually gets trampled on by interventions and fear. I've only had one mom birht twins without an epidural. And just last night, I had the best natural birth with a patient (she hadn't planned on natural).

Jody said...

Yes luckily I Do get to see a few "natural" births. The moms from Triage..10cms lol.
But I Always tell them how well they did. "And no Epidural!! Woooot!"

Jody said...

Yes Auds I agree. It's all about malpractice. It still makes me angry tho. Last night I had a Doc offer a CSection to a woman Before she was even in labor. Ok she was heavy, and did have Gestational Diabetes...so they were afraid of a big baby. But they didn't even want to let her labor at All. She refused. So I started her Pitocin this am before I left. I will call in tonight and see how it all ends up...

mumo3 said...

Natural all the way, baby!
I've done epidural once- the first time... I was so scared I was hoping there'd be complications so I could have a C-section (ack!).
Last two all natural! It's like running a marathon- sucks royally at the time, but the rush afterwards is like nothing else! To do it again- and I may- I embrace the pain....

2 kids...3 martinis said...

Interesting blog.
I'm an RN too, although I've never worked on L&D.
My view on epidurals (I've had two); sometimes, they are practically life-saving! I had pitocin with both my babies, and I'm pretty sure had I not had it, I would not have wanted the epidurals as my contractions before it was started were bad, but not intolerable.
My first epidural was MUCH too heavy as I could not feel a thing. My second one was nice; took the intense edge off the pain, but I still felt it and felt that urge to push. I think both my epidurals helped me to relax and also helped me dilate at a much better rate as I was stalled before receiving them. And I had fairly large babies: 9-3 and 8-12 3/4. Post partum was pretty normal and my babies apgars were 9 and 10, 10 and 10 respectively. No autism either; both are doing brilliantly at 11 and almost 8 years old now. I know how lucky we are.
I admire and respect those of you who are able to do it au naturale! And envy you a bit too.

SANDY G. said...

I really like that video!

I have four kids, all vaginal births. I had one shot of Demerol with each of the first two and nothing at all with my last two. And my youngest was 9 lbs., 1 oz. I'm 5'3 and small boned. It was very rough, but not unbearable.

I agree that there is far too much unnecessary interference with birth.

Great blog!