Natural Labor vs. Medicated.

About three years ago, when I was pregnant with my daughter, I never would have even considered doing a natural birth. In fact, five months ago when I was pregnant with my son, I wouldn't have considered it.

After being a week overdue with my daughter, the doctor decided to induce labor. I went in at 7:30PM, on a Sunday night. After giving me medicine to soften my cervix, the contractions started at about 9PM. A couple of hours later, I was given some Stadol, to ease the pain. A couple more hours...I was given the epidural. When I was finally getting the epidural, I was sooooo relieved, hoping that the pain would cease. Well, it didn't. It stayed, and stayed, and stayed some more. The epidural was unsuccessful, I felt everything. I was put on oxygen, so that me and the baby could both get enough. The pain was extremely intense, as it should be, but in between contractions, I would just pass back out. The stadol kept me asleep in between the contractions, so I really didn't get to experience ANYTHING, other then the pain. My daughter was born at 12:56PM that Monday.

With my son, I also went a week overdue. The doctor scheduled me to be induced on a Thursday morning. I packed everything, made sure everything was ready to go that Wednesday night. At about 10:45, I put some clothes in the dryer, and was about to go to bed, when I felt some slight pain. I didn't think anything of it, and went about my business. About five or ten minutes later, the contractions started. I dealt with it for about an hour, thinking it will go away. It's just braxton hicks. That's what I kept telling myself. After that hour, I decided to time them. They were six minutes apart. I timed them for about another two hours. Then they started coming 4 minutes apart. Finally I realized this baby wasn't waiting until 7AM as planned, so I decided to wake my boyfriend up. On the way back to the bedroom, I had a contraction, and he heard me, and thankfully, he got out of bed. I told him we needed to go. Now.

I was extremely stubborn. I shouldn't have waited so long to go, but it was the middle of December. I didn't want to get my daughter out in the cold, unless I was sure this was it.

My stubborness doomed me. When I finally got to the hospital, contractions were about 1 1/2 apart, and I was dilated to 8. Guess what that means? Too late for any pain medication, of any kind. Labor was progressing too rapidly to take any chances. My son was born, drug free, at 4:13 am.

Epidural birth: roughly 16 hours.
Natural birth: roughly 5 hours.
Epidural birth recovery: Days.
Natural birth recovery: Hours.

Now maybe I just feel natural birth is the better route to take because my epidural was unsuccessful. If it had worked, I may look at this differently. But I recovered so much quicker after having my son. I literally felt like I was back to normal[besides the fatigue], within hours of having him. After having my daughter, I felt like I had been hit by a bus. For days.

If I ever get pregnant again, which we're not planning on, I will attempt a natural birth again. I would advise anyone to at least try it.