Sandi Goes Granola - Part 2

I wrote about why I decided to switch to a new OB in Part 1. So now let's talk about why I'm attempting to go med-free in the first place.

While we were still trying to conceive, a friend got pregnant and started posting on FB about how she was doing a natural home birth. I recall making a comment to Jason that I thought that was absolutely crazy and that I would gladly be taking my epidural as soon as possible. The friend also recommended a documentary, The Business of Being Born. 

I was bored one day so I streamed it on Netflix, completely skeptical and fully expecting to walk away even more sure of my criticism of the crunchy, granola type women who attempted childbirth without pain medication. I mean, you wouldn't get a root canal without some drugs, why push a kid out of your vagina without them?

Let me just say, I didn't walk away from it screaming that all hospitals and OBs are the devil and that I was going natural, baby!! Umm, no. In fact, I was still pretty confident I'd get an epidural.

What the documentary did, however, was open my eyes to a multitude of issues with modern practices regarding child birth in the US, and it left me with enough curiosity to do more research on my own. 

Then it became painfully obvious how difficult it was going to be for us to even get pregnant, so I just put all that on the back burner. No need to dedicate time and energy to something that may never happen for you.

As you know by now, it did eventually happen for us. Now that we finally had a baby on the way and we got out of the ultra-scary 1st trimester, it was time to consider how I wanted the birth to go down.

I started reading more and more about child birth, or at least about what a typical child birth in the US is like. I read so many birth stories that would start with inductions or early epidurals which would lead to a cascade of interventions and very often c-sections. The statistical data is alarming, especially when compared to other countries or even birth centers and midwifery practices in the US. Nearly half of all first-time moms receive inductions (doubles risk of c-section), and 27% get c-sections. Not to mention, Louisiana has the highest c-section rate in the country. I decided that was NOT the route I wanted to take.

So I started researching natural birth and evidence-based maternity care. It didn't take me long to realize that this was the right method for me. For various reasons. 

Avoiding the unnecessary interventions was a key factor. Unless it's medically necessary, I don't want to be induced before 41 weeks and if my BPPs and NSTs looked good, I would be willing to push it to closer to 42 weeks (ACOG guideline). And I definitely don't want a c-section because I tried to force my baby out before he was ready and was slapped with a failure to progress tag. ACOG also states that suspected fetal macrosomia (big baby) isn't a reason for automatic induction or c-section in women who do not have gestational diabetes or some other medical factor where the baby might be larger. 

I also don't handle pain meds well and the general idea of an epidural is unsettling to me, how it's administered and the effects.

Those weren't the only reasons though. It also boiled down to how our entire process to get pregnant was so....clinical. It was one intervention after the next with so many doctors and nurses and medical procedures and invasions of privacy involved. It wasn't "natural" in the sense that it wasn't how I ever dreamed of it being. That intimacy in creating life together was taken from us and replaced with speculums, catheters, and ultrasounds. It wasn't how it was supposed to be. 

So this birth, the birth of the son we tried so hard to conceive, a son we waited so long to meet, this birth will be just about us. Jason and I, together. Me being in the moment and focused on my body, him coaching me and supporting me as we experience this incredible, momentous event in our lives and welcome our son into the world.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who say epidurals are horrible and natural is the only way to go. I don't side-eye any woman for wanting as little pain as possible during what will likely be the most pain she's ever experienced. (Medically unnecessary inductions before 40w or planned c-sections for convenience may get a side-eye.) I absolutely believe medical interventions can be necessary and life-saving in certain situations. If those types of complications arise in our labor and intervention becomes necessary, then interventions will be had. Or if I'm at hour 34 and I'm completely exhausted with no energy or will left, bring on the epidural.

I'm not trying to be a wonder woman or prove anything. I just believe this is the best way for us. And I believe we will succeed. I'm so lucky to have Jason by my side, who has not only agreed to my nontraditional notions, but has come to embrace them and want them as badly as I do. I know that having him there to coach me and give me encouragement and love me no matter what the outcome, that is the most important thing that will help me when I feel like giving up. 

At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that Levi arrives healthy. If I get my perfect birth in the process, that'll be icing on the cake.