Women who gave birth without drugs, would you do it again? Why / why not?

18 comments

1. Did it the first time, got an epidural the second time. While I’m glad I gave birth naturally once to experience it, I didn’t want to do it again. The pain is indescribable.

2. I had a much easier recovery from my natural labors. Labor progressed faster too. I would do it again but don’t blame anyone who would rather not.

3. Yes I would. I’ve had three births, had epidural for the second one only. The pain is intense for sure but it’s not unmanageable.

4. Yes. I went in for both births fully expecting to beg for an epi at some point, but there was never a need for one in either case. The pain wasn’t that intense.

5. 3 natural with some gas with no2 which just made me sick….refuse to have an epidural as they lengthen labour so screw that haha I had my tubes tied cause no never again but my problem is the pushing no way to get rid of that burning feeling

6. I had a water birth without any pain medication. I had a doula and went to a birth center instead of a hospital. For me the most pain was when I was still at home. My contractions kept getting closer and when I felt like I needed to push we left. I thought my water broke in my husbands car(it did not I just peed myself because the contractions were intense), and that fifteen minute car ride I was screaming cause I couldn’t sit down. Apparently my daughters head was already in the birth canal. Now, with the water birth the warm water relieved a lot of the back pain I was having. I didn’t really feel any pain. I think the water and the straps above me which allowed me to pull and maneuver myself however I wanted was extremely helpful. I could not imagine laying down for birth. Even when pushing I don’t really remember any pain, I was just tired and wanted the baby out. The hardest part was the push right before her head came out. That was the only pain I remember. I did tear(second degree, internal and external) but I didn’t feel that. Once she was out I was able to get up and walk around(after placenta came out and being sewn up was done), and we left the birth center a few hours later. Overall I had an amazing birth experience and would definitely opt for non medicated again, if my next pregnancy is completely healthy I will probably opt for a home birth as we moved and the birth center is too far now.

7. If it was safe, 100% yes I would. One of my daughters was almost born in the hallway (paid stamp mark on our parking ticket at 9:25pm and she arrived at 9:37pm). The pain at the moment was unbearable and I begged for relief, which I was way too late for, and she was just there.

   Zero to one hundred in 17 minutes. The flush afterwards is indescribeable and amazing.

   I would take that over the 30+ hours labour and partial epidual and oxytocin and induced labour and awfulness full stop of other pregnancies.

8. Well, I’m “one and done” with my son, so while I won’t be giving birth again, in a hypothetical situation I would 100% do an unmedicated birth, aside from having the option to use nitrous (my son was born December 2020 so covid protocol meant nitrous wasn’t an option) My choice to be one and done has nothing to do with childbirth- things went basically as smoothly as one could hope.

   The only really painful part was about a half hour before it was time to push- that was excruciating, “I’m going to die”, 11/10 pain. Once it was time to push, it quickly subsided to a discomforting 3/10 pain and he was born after about 10 minutes of pushing, no tears, no pain afterward (aside from the first pee after giving birth, that hurt)

   I’ve also been told by my doctor and many other women that lingering back/spine issues are common after an epidural, and between my fear of a needle in my spine and chronic back issues from ankylosing spondylitis, I was adamant on no epidural. My son is 15 months old and I don’t really feel or look any different from what I did pre-pregnancy (I’ll be 35 this year)

9. I did it once without epidural and I would do it again.
   The thought of being jabbed in my spine is even more unbearable than the excruciating pain of labor.

10. 2 natural births. The first was a home birth and I laboured mainly in a birthing pool. Very relaxing. The contractions didn’t hurt. The actual birth did, that was scream worthy pain because of positioning. The 2nd was a hospital birth, wasn’t allowed to move. That was a short, but painful labour.

    I would have had a natural home birth again, not hospital. I’m too old now 🙂

11. I did it three times. I will not have a fourth child. If I was going to, then yes, I’d have the same birth plan. All my births are the speedy and intense kind, I go from zero to full on back to back contractions and have never had a labour last longer than 3 hours. My last one hurt a lot; I made my husband laugh at one point by saying “but this really *hurts*” in a apparently confused tone, but I didn’t think about asking for drugs. I had in my head nothing much more than ‘get him out get him out get him out’ and I’m not sure I even remembered my own name an hour into that labour, let alone that drugs existed.

    That said if at any point in any of my labours I had changed my mind and wanted drugs I would have demanded the damn drugs and felt exactly the same about myself. There are no prizes for doing it without drugs and the concept of judging people for how they chose to birth is ridiculous.

12. If the birth were similar to the last one, yes. The pain was intense but manageable, my labour was not long and I would like to go home 4 hours after the birth if possible. Also I’m scared of having an epidural (spinal headaches 😳) and don’t like the idea of not being able to move around. Obviously if the pain was not manageable, the labour was longer, I needed a c-section, etc. I would have an epidural. But my preference would be not to have one.

13. Hell no. Those were the most painful 26 hours of my life.

14. I had 3 natural births. I was lucky enough to have fairly quick deliveries. The only reason I didn’t have an epidural is because I was terrified of them sticking those giant needles in my spine.

15. I’d do it again. My labor was really fast though. One reason I liked not using drugs was because once the baby was out, that was it, no residual drug highs and weird feelings to come down from. Didn’t plan on no drugs, just happened that way.

16. i don’t think i want another, but if i did, i would definitely go all-natural again. not gonna lie, it was really painful. but the thought of a giant needle being inserted into my spine makes me shudder.

17. I gave birth without drugs/pain relief each time, so yes I’d do it again. My labours weren’t straightforward but equally, they weren’t very long so doing it without any pain relief was completely doable.

18. I would try to do it again. Yes, painful but I felt it was safer for the baby. Afterwards I felt great- no grogginess, no worries about drugs in my milk and I could push fully. However this is not a judgment against other choices. The best choice is the one that each person makes based on their mental and physical comfort .