Why Natural Childbirth?

I am very determined to have a natural childbirth. When I tell people this, I've gotten some pretty interesting reactions. From "Oh...well, good luck," to "Oh yeah? Well, you might as well tie your uterus to the bumper of that truck over there and pull the kid out that way; it would be less painful." (Thanks for that visual, by the way, Woman I Just Met).
But the most common reaction is simply curiosity. People want to know why I'm not opting for drugs. Why am I choosing to experience pain that is supposed to be incomparable to any other pain on earth?
I have a lot of reasons why I want to do this au' naturale. Google the question and you'll find many other women around the country giving the same reasons: because I can, because any drug given to a pregnant woman has a multiplied effect on the baby, because you never really know how a drug is going to affect you personally, because when labor is over I want it to be over and not still recovering from pain meds, because I don't want an epidural to possibly slow down my contractions and then have to be given MORE drugs to "speed me up," because...you get the idea.
Let me express that I believe this choice is for each individual woman to make. I'm not commenting or judging any other woman's decision, because the choice she made was what was best for her and her family. This is simply MY reasoning for what is best for ME and MY family. Also, I’m not saying that I won't accept medical intervention if the need arises. Of course I know that birthing is unpredictable, and I want to put the safety of Ridley and myself above all else. But when it comes to choosing my first option of how I ideally want to give birth, I choose natural.

Childbirth is THE life experience of life experiences. I have at times thought of myself as being a collector of life experiences. After all, what are we given life for if not to be experienced? We weren’t made to sit and watch from the side lines, but to get up and play the game. I get a lot of pleasure out of getting the opportunity to experience something for the first time after hearing other people try and describe it. Maybe "pleasure" isn't always the appropriate word for life experiences that aren't so positive, but I always at least find the value of having experienced something first hand for the first time.

When I was a kid, this meant riding the biggest roller coasters that I was tall enough to ride, but also getting my first ear ache. In middle school it meant kissing a boy, but also getting dumped for the first time. In high school it was testing out my independence with friends and going to prom, but also finding myself on the wrong side of the rumor mill. In college it was traveling the world, but also feeling the full weight of being homesick. After college it was getting married to an amazing man and earning money in a field of work I enjoyed, but also experiencing my first job interview rejection.

I have never been one who wanted to "dull" an experience, good or bad. Every experience we have shape who we are, how we think, and how we interact with other people in our lives. Pain is painful, but it can also be useful.

Giving birth to a child is about the most kick a$$ thing there is on the planet! What's more kick a$$ than giving birth to a new life? Not much. Talk about a "life experience!" Sorry Arnold and Sylvester, but nothing you could ever do on celluloid could match the awesome power and strength that women possess while giving birth. And half the human population doesn’t even get an opportunity to experience it! It's an experience that is only offered to women.

I understand I can experience childbirth and still have an epidural. Every woman who gives birth, no matter what her particular circumstances, has an undeniably strong memory of the event (of course!). But I’m a purist. I want to be completely present, cognizant and clear headed during the experience. I want to be in the moment. I don't want to dull any sensation because every sensation is part of the experience. I want to drink it all in and have it with me, knowing that you don’t get many opportunities to experience this Life Experience (yes, with a capital “L” and “E”). It may be the most intense pain that I'll ever feel in my life, but I'll know what that really means, completely. I'll know what every step of the labor journey feels like, from the first contraction to the last push.

If unforeseeable things occur and I end up getting an epidural or having a Cesarean section, then that is the experience that I will have collected. I don't want to feel disappointed if that happens, because of course the most important thing is the next set of life experiences I get to have throughout Ridley's life. But as an ideal, going natural is the way I want to experience childbirth.

So now you've read the entire long winded post and you can go ahead and say it: "Spoken like a woman who's never given birth." Yep. That's exactly my point.