Epidural or Ol' Natural?

Epidural or Natural Birth?

Which do you prefer, Epidural or Natural child birth? I've had both and i'd have to say I prefer natural because when I was able to cope with the pain of a natural childbirth with my 3rd child I bonded with him on so many more levels than my other two. This does not mean my level of love varies from child to child but we just seem much closer in everything.

When I was seventeen I became pregnant with my first child. I gave birth when I was eighteen on April 3rd, 2007 and I had an Epidural. I was afraid of the pain of natural child birth mainly because of media and how horrific they exaggerate it to be. I saw my first live child birth when I was in fifth Grade. we went to the Health Museum in Cleveland, Ohio and I think in a way it traumatized me. But The Epidural during contractions was painful in it's own right. After the epidural was in it was honestly smooth sailing. Some call it the Easy Road of birth. There has always been controversy to pain medications during child birth. On Friday March 13th, 2009 I was blessed with my second child. Epidural? no. Instead I was on pain medication with him so I felt the pressure and a moderate amount of pain. My third and (for now) final child was born May 11th, 2012. It was by far the hardest pregnancy I had but maybe that's just because i'm a big baby when it comes to most things. I had killer motion sickness which was awful because I worked doing a paper route with my mother driving around from 2:30 am - 6:50 am in a van delivering papers. Only things that would keep me from vomiting in the van during work was if I drank Arizona's Watermelon Cocktails and snacking on my huge bag of Skittles my mother bought me. How those helped is as beyond me as it may be to you. It makes no sense when sugar usually makes nausea worse. The morning of his birth we went to the hospital while I was contracting. The Nurses insisted I get an Epidural or at least pain medication for the contractions. I completely refused all remedies they had offered me; my mother even tried to convince me to accept that I wouldn't be a bad person if I did comply with the medicine suggestions but of course I became stubborn and insisted not to. I held the rail of the bed tight and cried in pain. I could feel everything 10 fold. The baby coming into the birth canal, the crowning, His head and body forcing it's way out of it's 9 month home. When I saw him I never saw anything so beautiful since 2009 I cried tears of joy because that pain I went through gave me a little gift from God to cherish and take care of. It was more than worth it and as soon as he looked into my eyes the next day I was in love. I still look at him with adoration even though he's a rambunctious little four year old now. I believe the natural birth had something to do with it. But whether or not you have a natural birth does not determine what kind of parent you will be. pain of labor doesn't decide that. The amount of love in your heart does however. Love your child/children with every last breath you take.