Natural Childbirth for Me.

As most people know, natural childbirth is not too common in comparison to medicated births. Some people think it's ridiculous to not get help with the pain of labor.  I dissent. After my experience with childbirth and epidurals previously, and with everything I have learned about birth and the woman's body, natural childbirth is what I want to do. And.... I WILL have help with the pain of labor.  I will have Hypnobabies childbirth self hypnosis, my husband, doulas, family, supportive midwives, and the knowledge of how to work with my body and reduce any fear and tension. I'm very confident in myself. I am also very determined.
Today I was kind of laughed at.  In the manner of, "You're a doula but you've never gone natural?" and...."You think you are going to go natural now? You don't know how much it hurts!"
While the latter may be true, I was a little offended like, "Other women can do it, why can't I? Thanks a lot!"  I've seen natural birth many times now. Of course it looks hard, but they are successful. I'm also not going into it blindly. I'm not just going to "try." I've been preparing for two years. I've taken hours and hours of classes. About 100 hours so far. I've been to hours and hours of natural births. I've read books, and articles galore. I am taking  a childbirth class from the creator of Hypnobabies itself.  I'm using deep relaxing self hypnosis. I've learned what to do in emergency situations. So why in the world can't I have a natural childbirth????  I've learned about all the amazing things that happen in your body and mind when you have a natural birth. I know that labor hormones are good for both mom and baby. Natural oxytocin we produce is amazing.  It naturally reduces pain. It naturally creates a love and bonding upon birth. Pitocin cannot do that. Pitocin is painful. Epidurals block the love hormone. Natural oxytocin is good for baby's brain. Pitocin doesn't do anything for baby's brain. In fact, I've read articles that pitocin could be the culprit for initiating my child's PDD.  So I have passionate feelings and reasons for trying to avoid pitocin. As for epidurals? I'm not going to judge anyone for getting one. Not at all. There are risks and benefits to everything.  If the benefit outweighs the risk, then you've made a good choice. For me, the risk has outweighed the benefits. I got an epidural before I really needed it, once.  I was extremely disappointed and unsatisfied with my birth.  I was angry. I didn't feel like I did anything to have a baby. I ended up with some postpartum depression issues. That was not fun. My back hurt from the rough anesthesiologist who was completely rude and told me I might die, "so sign here."  Then he shot everything into my back so hard, I was screaming so loud from the pain. Much worse than labor pains for me. See why I don't want one? Plus, I want a better recovery. I want to feel good. I want to walk. I want to hold my baby. With epidurals my blood pressure decreases. With pitocin, my babies get stressed. They come out unhappy. It's amazing the happy, unmedicated babies that I have seen from unmedicated births.  I want to give that gift to my child. I want the experience. I want the hormones. I want the health. I want the challenge. Some people want to run a marathon and some people want to have an unmediated birth. So why persecute either of us, right?
On to the whole doula thing, but not experienced in natural childbirth myself. I understand where people are coming from. And I was worried about it myself.  But then I thought of something. I am like a labor coach.  If we think about the coach's role, he/she may not be able to go out on the court or the feild and do what they are telling their team to do. They can tell them exactly what to do, but would fall on their face if they did it themselves. Yet, you have some great coaches out there! Because they are knowledgeable and they have learned. They know how to communicate. They know how to help.
The cool DIFFERENCE is that after all of my coaching, I CAN go out there and do it myself. A coach may not be capable of dunking a basketball, but this coach IS capable of having a natural childbirth, and I'm gonna. :) Hopefully those that I have doula'd so far, feel that I was a knowledgeable, and decent coach... Heck, you have midwives and OB's that have never had babies and we trust them with the process. I know I don't have that high of a ranking, but with the knowledge that I am supposed to know, what is the difference with the way I can fulfill my role and take care of my clients the way that is expected? :)
Thanks for listening.