by Charlotte A. Cavatica

Created on: July 25, 2008

When I was younger and thinking about someday when I'd have kids, I always said that I'd take as many drugs as they would give me. It never occurred to me that those drugs could also affect the baby.

When I did find myself pregnant with my son at 30, I started my research on everything having to do with pregnancy, labor and birth. The more information I uncovered about epidurals, which seemed to be the most common pain management method, the more convinced I became that natural child birth was the better choice - both for me and for my son.

My initial impression about an epidural was that it would dull the pain and nothing more. It didn't occur to me that in order to dull the pain, you're essentially numb from the waist down, which means you can't get up and walk. You can't go to the bathroom for yourself, which means a catheter needs to be put in. In addition to that, there could be a pretty severe headache that comes as a result of having an epidural should there be any spinal fluid leakage. I don't know about you, but anything that's going to cause my spinal fluid to leak out of the area where it's supposed to stay sounds pretty sketchy. In addition, there is a risk that you could suffer permanent nerve damage should anything go wrong while the epidural is being administered... in extreme cases, permanent paralysis.

As far as the baby is concerned, the American Pregnancy Association states that some newborns may experience difficulty in "latching on" when trying to breastfeed. While still in the womb, some babies may become lethargic and some may have trouble getting into position for delivery. Epidurals have also been known to cause respiratory depression and decreased fetal heart rate in newborns. While some women are comfortable with these risks, I was not and so opted for natural childbirth.

I knew it would mean more pain and discomfort, but I also knew that every person walking on the face of the planet got here because a woman birthed them and that birth would happen whether drugs were involved or not. Women have been bearing children for thousands of years without the assistance of drugs, epidurals have only been administered for as long as I've been alive (before that it was chloroform, followed by a cocktail of morphine and scopolamine). If doing everything in my power to ensure my son's health and well being meant I had to suffer more, I would do it... and I did. If I can do it with the circumstances I faced, I think anyone can do it in a "normal"

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