Thank you again for a thought-provoking piece. My child will become a high school graduate this month as well. (Congrats to both of us!) When their mother was pregnant, I was most definitely in the category of “the best way is the ‘most natural’ way,” meaning NO epidural. Like it would be a tremendous failure of some weird standard I had inherited without question. As it happened, she went into labor almost 2 months early and had to get an emergency C-section, which meant general anesthesia. So no choices there. But I have held that belief all these years, just never had a chance to question it until now. Easy to change my mind at this late date. So if I ever have the chance to counsel a young man with similar misguided beliefs as I had, I’ll have something different to say to him. Maybe even show him your essay…
From the beginning, I knew I wanted an epidural. I'm clearly not one of those wonder women. So I had one ! But it failed me. Worked for 5 minutes, then it was over. That was a tough one !
Oh no. My first epidural was wonderful. Didn't hurt to get and I felt no pain for hours. The one for my younger daughter though was not the same. It hurt to get and I started feeling itchy and panicky almost immediately. Luckily that birth went from not dilated to "here's a baby" in about half an hour.
My birthing plan for my second baby consisted of only one word: Epidural.
Thank you again for a thought-provoking piece. My child will become a high school graduate this month as well. (Congrats to both of us!) When their mother was pregnant, I was most definitely in the category of “the best way is the ‘most natural’ way,” meaning NO epidural. Like it would be a tremendous failure of some weird standard I had inherited without question. As it happened, she went into labor almost 2 months early and had to get an emergency C-section, which meant general anesthesia. So no choices there. But I have held that belief all these years, just never had a chance to question it until now. Easy to change my mind at this late date. So if I ever have the chance to counsel a young man with similar misguided beliefs as I had, I’ll have something different to say to him. Maybe even show him your essay…
From the beginning, I knew I wanted an epidural. I'm clearly not one of those wonder women. So I had one ! But it failed me. Worked for 5 minutes, then it was over. That was a tough one !
Oh no. My first epidural was wonderful. Didn't hurt to get and I felt no pain for hours. The one for my younger daughter though was not the same. It hurt to get and I started feeling itchy and panicky almost immediately. Luckily that birth went from not dilated to "here's a baby" in about half an hour.