Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Drugs or No Drugs

Just reading on Blogging Baby... er, Parent Dish..... about natural birth vs, well, unnatural I guess..... Ok, ok... medicated vs non-medicated.

Again.... I bang my drum and shout, "Everyone is different and even each child is different."

My first labor:

Woke up at 1:30 am. Hospital around 4:30 am. IV & interthecal around 6:40. No time for epidural. Baby at 6:58 am. (Shift change is at 7:00.... I don't recommend this.)

Interthecal meds (morphine? What the hell is in that?) made me Sick with a capital S-Ick. Headache and passing out whenever I tried to stand up..... literally.... for about 18 hours.


My second labor:

Woke up at 4:30 am. Hospital around 7:30 am. No time for an IV. Baby at 8:03 am. (Nice fresh nurses from 7:00 am shift change... excellent.) I still have the half filled out epidural consent form that Hot Stuff was working on when things got serious.


We already know the hospital is remodeling and the new maternity area is on the 4th floor.... which means Baby #3 (if there is one) will be born in the elevator. I just hope the nurses take me seriously when I tell them I'm, um, kinda fast in the labor department.... it must be the laughing and joke-cracking that throws them off..... with #2 they told me I had plenty of time and they put me in the "rule-out" room.... hah!

Now.... what was best for ME? Obviously.... labor #2 when I was up and showered by 9:15 am.... much better than passing out between the toilet and the tub like #1.

But what is best for YOU?? It's like Jimmy Buffett says.... "Only Time Will Tell...."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm hoping to go natural as long as possible, and then go for the big fat epidural. Because if Dr. has to cut my sensitive bits to get Pickle out, I don't want to feel it!
-Sarah

Anonymous said...

Baby #1: 16 textbook hours. About 9 - 10 hours of early, three or four of active, an hour or so of transition, an hour of pushing. Textbook. A lovely 7 lb, 14 oz girl.

Baby #2: 87 minutes, from start to finish. He weighed almost 10 pounds. No tearing. ("You have very elastic tissue," said the doctor. Me, I gave a heartfelt "thanks, mom" for the good genes.)

Baby #3: Given her big brother's speedy arrival, I wanted a home birth. Sadly, they weren't covered by health insurance back then like they are now, so off to hospital (birthing centre) we went yet again. As it was, 9 hours.

Medications? Did I or didn't I? You know what? Thirteen to 21 years after the fact, it doesn't make one smidge of difference.

(But Sarah? If you have an epidural, you're more likely to need the episiotomy. Just FYI, if it's something you want to avoid. But maybe you don't care, you just don't want to feel it?)