Birthing & drugs...

[sherahtaylor]

Hello ladies -

Question for you. I am newly pregnant, 4 weeks, with baby #6. My other pregnancies I've been on a SAD and had an epidural every time. Now that I've been introduced to the raw lifestyle, and understand alot more about my body and putting foreign things into it - I'm wondering about the effects of an epidural. I would still like to get one, but don't want to put my body into shock.

I've been raw for about 30 days now, and plan to be 100% raw through my pregnancy and nursing my baby. Can you tell me your experience with drugs while on RAW, what it does, and how an epidural might affect me?

Our insurance doesn't cover a midwife at this point so I have to have a hospital birth.

[codajess]

:eek: Six.

[dreamrawalwz]

I havn't experienced this myself, but throughout the year reading posts I remember reading one where moms compared SAD births to raw births. Said the SAD ones were much more painful, while the raw births were very easy. Just wanted to put that out there! Congrats!

[Revvell]

I would still like to get one....

Why? that means to me you are afraid of the pain and assuming there will be some. You might wish to listen to this: http://www.bigmediausa.com/archive.asp?aid=7777

Revvell

[Guppy]

Revvell,
Just curious if you have given birth to babies yourself? If yes, did you NOT experince pain?

Sherah - Sorry I was not Raw during my pregnancies so I cannot answer your question. Congratulations on baby #6!!

emily

[Sharon in Colorado]

I think with it being your 6th, and you being raw, this should be pretty easy.

This is just based on experience. I had nothing with my first and second and the second was the easiest. I decided on the epi with the third and wish I hadn't, however he was a big one, so maybe it was a good idea. The epidural really messed up my back.

Really, you should try it as intervention free as you can. My first was with a midwife, but after that the new insurance didn't cover it, so my 2nd and 3rd was with a doc. However he really worked with me.

Since the 2nd was an easier pregnancy and delivery, I did nothing, no IV, no ultrasounds, nada.

With the 3rd there was quite a bit of weight gain and other complications and I asked for the epidural, he just did whatever I wanted along with his judgement of my particular needs.

[Ildikob]

Sherahtaylor,

I have one baby who was delivered in the hospital and with epidural. I was planning on natural birth, but it did not really go the way we imagined. (Of course I was on a healthy SAD diet- I know it does not sound good, but I was eating relatively well)
Epidurals are not natural and not as great as they make it out to be. Try to do a search on the Mothering magazine website, cause they have done several articles on it. (www.mothering.com, I think)

Good luck and for sure also check out Jinjee's story, she had raw and SAD pregnancies, all home births, so for sure she never had an epi.

HTH,
Ildiko

[juliebove]

I was not eating SAD nor raw when I had my baby. It was a vegetarian diet but I was eating a lot of raw foods too. I didn't not want an epidural and put it in my birthing plan not to have one. I really didn't want drugs of any sort, but I could not fathom anyone wanting an epidural. That's just me. I can't stand any kind of numbness. And I didn't think it was worth drugging the baby either.

As it turned out, I had to have an induced labor, another thing I didn't want. But I had a high risk pregnancy and was going into pre-eclampsia so I didn't have a lot of choice at that point because they feared I might die with my super high BP.

My induction happened very rapidly. Not the mild, two day event they led me to believe. Nope. In went the pitocin and let the pain begin! What happened with me is that the labor pains were so close together there seemed to be no beginning or end to them. I certainly could not tell and the nurse had to keep telling me when to push. Yes, it was painful and no fun but I still wouldn't have wanted an epidural.

I was in labor for 12 hours. At about the 10 hour mark the Dr. insisted I have some Demerol. He gave me no choice and I was so weak and exhausted, I didn't protest. The problem was, although I was fully dilated, her head was molding to my cervix and she just wouldn't come out. I couldn't seem to push her out despite hours of trying.

I must say when all was said and done, the worst pain I had was up and down the backs of my legs from all that pushing! I had no clue that I'd have to bend my knees and push my legs back up into my face to push the baby out. Somehow that particular move was never covered in birthing class! Although they did put us through all sorts of exercises. I also had an episiotomy with numbness down below. I remember the Dr. saying, "You're going to hate me for this, but I've gotta snip." I had also put it in my birthing plan that I didn't want one of those, but he had to sort of do it at the same time he was using the forceps to pull the baby out.

The pain was pretty much gone after a week went by. And if I had it to do over, I still wouldn't have an epidural.

I do think a lot of it has to do with how fast your labor is. My mom had me in less than two hours. For a quick labor, I really think pain meds would be unnecessary. If it's a really long labor...like several days, then you might need some sort of meds because like me, you do get weak and exhausted. And when you reach that point, you simply can't push the baby out.

[Ginger]

Revvell you have the most beautiful voice!!! WOW

[Revvell]

Revvell you have the most beautiful voice!!! WOW

RawVeganMom,

Thank you. No one's ever told me that. :)

Revvell

[firefaery]

I labored for two days with my last two. Both were born at home, and I have never had pain meds for any of my kids. I can't speak to the difference in meds vs natural, but I recovered far quicker when I was raw!