Last night was week 2 of our childbirth class. It was all about pain management. We did stations to practice different positions and techniques that help with pain management. I was feeling pretty good about the whole idea of natural childbirth. The teacher showed us this poster of the stages of labor. How it starts out with contractions that are 30-45 seconds long with a 5-20 minute break in between. Then it progresses to contractions that are a minute long with five minutes in between. Then the last stage they are a minute to a minute and a half long with a minute to a minute and half break in between. I was thinking that I could do that. There would be a lot of breaks in between the pain.
Then we did this ice exercise. We had to hold ice in both hands for a minute. After a few seconds, I was already ready to give up. It was horrible. Then, we had to do it again with deep breathing. It still hurt. You wouldn't think holding ice would be that bad, but it is. I can only imagine labor will be much worse than holding ice.
The last part of the night, we watch a video on epidurals. Which was also slightly scary. The way they are put in freaked me out! When I try to weigh the pros and cons, it seems that there are more cons. It does take away the pain and let you rest, relax, and sleep if you want to. But, it can cause spinal headaches or backaches. You can't get out of bed. You have to have a catheter. It doesn't always work perfectly- you could end up with a spot that you still feel pain. And what worries me the most is that it can cause a decrease in some babies sucking reflex for about 2 hours. From what we've learned, babies are awake for about an hour, so that means they may not nurse right away.
At this point, I think I've decided to play everything by ear. I'm going to try and go without pain meds or at least as long as I can without. Granted, I've never given birth before and really have no idea what I'll want to do in the moment.
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I did a homebirth with my daughter, completely free of pain medication. The main thing in childbirth, I think, is to try to keep away things that cause more fear and anxiety. Think positively about your labor and delivery - stay away from people or stories that cause you to be fearful, educate yourself, and then make decisions as needed. You will do wonderfully! Your body is made to do this and knows what it's doing, even if we feel like we don't :)
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