Friday, February 18, 2011

Initial thoughts

One of my favorite calendar quotes from "A Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy:"

"Here's the Ultimate Girlfriends Tip: The minute you enter the hospital start asking for an epidural and continue until you receive one. Labor is not a contest, you don't win anything by going pain-free and if you think you want to go au naturel, talk to me afterward."

I think that's hilarious. BUT I like it. Every single woman who is older than me has said in the past many weeks, "get an epidural!" Everyone. Why would I not take their advice? Us young people like to try and do things against the grain and figure things out on our own and all the while older folks in our lives are kindly suggesting that we learn from their past trials and do things a different way. They are generally right. But do we listen? No. This time I think I am going to listen. I'm not ruling out the other options yet, these are just my thoughts as of month 3.

5 comments:

Dana {Sew Thrifty} said...

hehe, you're funny. Well, I would advise NOT to get an epidural, but I'm weird, I guess. I had an amazing birth experience, and went au natural. Definitely the closest I've felt to God and my husband in my entire life. If I were to do it over again, I would have done the exact same thing. Just my 2 cents... :)

Dana

mallory said...

You know how I feel about this, I'm one that has pretty much been on both sides of the fence and I'm going to go for a natural birth again :) I definitely think it's wise to know yourself though and your pain tolerance. In this case, you could say I'm pro-choice. Women should be able to choose what is best for them and their baby with no judgement from anyone.

Bek said...

My birth advice, is don't let your baby twirl the umbilical cord around shimself whilst laboring, because then, even if things are au natural, they drug you and cut you open anyway. After twenty hours of au natural. Because twirly babies get stuck bungee jumping and can't get all the way out. They get stuck.
Well, really 15 hours of au natural and 5 of drugs.
But having done both natural and drugged during the same labor, my advice is: don't have a large baby who twirls in utero.

Laura F. said...

Epidurals are wonderful...I will say don't get it too early b/c then you are stuck in bed and walking helps labor and waste time! I got mine at almost 9cm and it was the perfect time for me b/c I was able to labor on my own then get a little rest right before my daughter was born.

*I am a friend of your wonderful friend Mallory*

Megan said...

Thanks for the thoughts friends! Laura, I'm so glad to hear about your experience. That sounds great! I'm thinking I'll try to labor on my own for as long as I can stand it, then probably ask for the meds. We shall see.....:)