Please don't think less of me - prayer request

Well I can say I certainly went into the hospital with both of mine alreayd knowing I would want an epidural! I may be the only one but I wasn't going to go through a bunch of pain if it could easily be relieved. My short span of depression after the birth of my first was due to the fact that I was married to a moron who didn't do a darn thing to help out. I was barely 20 and didn't know what to do. Same drugs and doctor intervention with my second and no depression at all. In fact I was extremely happy but then again being married to teh best man in teh world probably had something to do with that.

 

I knew with ALL three I was getting an epidural! LOL. When I went to the hospital with my second the nurse encouraged me to not get one because I was handling the pain so well. HA! I was handling it well but that didn't mean I wanted to feel it! LOL. If truth be told I was scared. I can understand how one would think fear is not a good enough reason to get an epidural though.

 

Fear is good enough for me when the pain is that intense! Everyone has the right to make that decision for themselves though. That isn't a decision anyone else has a right to make or judge anyone for.

 

AMEN, sister! With my third...I was induced. The induction was not working. They broke my water so I had no choice but to deliver or have a C-section. So, I continued on with NO pain relief. They did not want me to get an epidural until like the last minute because it can slow down the labor. I was SOOOOOO ready for one. I remember looking at my dh and saying "I think I need that epidural now." He immediately popped up and got a nurse. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO grateful he took action. I was just going to wait for the nurse to come back in to tell her. Had I waited I would have been out of luck. The epidural man (LOL) said that I got him right in time because he was on his way to a surgery and I would NOT have got one. UGH!!!! God is so good to me! lol. I had never felt pain like that in my other two labors. I mean if I had I may have only had one kid. lol. Of course, I had two really easy labors before this one. Anyway...I got it and I was overcome with joy! The nurse even had to wake me to push. LOL.

My doc came the next day and apologized for breaking my water. He said he thought he may have made a mistake since I was not progressing. I strongly told him to break my water though! LOL. I couldn't believe he apologized. I guess he could since everything ended up ok. lol.

 

well we all have our believes but I don't feel a doctor or nurse has any control in PPD. by having or not having meds. has anything to do with it. I am in a hs group right now with a mother who is a midwife and she was telling us a story about 2 of her patient and how they got ppd after the birth of there child. I really don't think it has anything to do with it. I think its the chemiical in our body.

Oh I just got done talking to my dd's godfather whom I told you was a doctor he got a good laugh for the day when I read this to him. Told me to tell you thanks for making his day.

 

That is so true. My second was born without the bed being broken down, and the doctor running in at the last minute, because the nurses wouldn't listen to me when I said it was time to push. They were convinced that 'lil ole me couldn't possibly know what was going on when I was only at 4cm. 30 min. ago! When I finally just started pusing anyway, they decided to check, and sure enough, she was crowning. Birth is a natural process, and women do have the instincts to get through it (given there are no medical issues involved).

My first 3 were all natural, and I LOVED it!! THe 4th, was induced (for medical reasons) and was a little intense for me, so I opted for the epidural. It was a huge deal, beacuse I am TERRIFIED of that epidural needle! In hindsight though, it was a very quick labor, and I'm sure I could have made it. Just didn't know it would be quick on the front end (which actually defeated the purpose of the induction)!

I don't know about the statistics for PPD. It something that I did not suffer with, but I know it is very real.

 

I agree with you on this one Kris.

With my oldest I was determined to go 100% natural! Life doesn't work the way we plan sometimes. I was in transition strength contractions.. contractions that were way off the register every 30 seconds for an hour and a half. I had no drugs, and was in the worst pain I could ever imagine! I was only dialated to 7, my hips did not seperate like they should have and my cervix could not dialate any further. I waited until I was putting my sons life in jeopardy before I oked a c section. I was super thankful when I got to the OR and got an epidural. I was also thankful that I didn't try to deliver my son. The position he was in his little neck would have broke if I tried to deliver him. I chose to have my other 2 babies via c-section! I never had PPD with any of my kids!

I think asking a "natural mommies" group is not going to give you a very good answer to wether or not medical intervention has an effect. It is a very biased "survey" and from my experience "natural mommies" tend to not be very open minded anyway.

 

Which was exactly the point of my follow up post in the first place. To say that my experience is limited to those who's depression was brought on more by disappointment in their birth experience than the interventions themselves.

KrisRV,
I'm glad he had a great time laughing at me.

(p.s. "natural mommies" tend to be the MOST open minded people I know. They actually research, seek answers, and weight ALL options before just following the societal flow of things)

 

well Amie I don't know if I would of said that statement or not some mothers have no other chose and can't be natural. If I would of went natural neither of my children would be here today. So, I don't believe that. I research and seek every answer and weight all my options before I went what was best for me and my girls.

 

When I talk about "natural mommies" I'm not talking about women who refuse medical intervention. I'm talking about women who prefer to do things naturally unless an issue arises. Obviously, in your case, there were issues that required interventions.

 

Ya know.. any way that my children got here would have been more than a blessing to me! It's a shame that these women who are supposedly depressed because of medical intervention aren't a little more thankful that God blessed them with a child. I think the majority of ppd is caused by a woman who is not honestly prepared both physically and mentally for the major changes that a baby brings into her life. I'm not saying that this is the case for every woman, just a very large percentage.

Also just think of how high the percentage was of women who died in child birth when it was left to midwives. That percentage is enough to make me thankful that I have a doctor who knew when it was time to intervene with my first one!

 

Wow.

I honestly don't know what causes PPD but I thought it was like depression in the sense that it was a brain chemical reaction. I didn't think a pushy nurse could cause that. I think it is an individual thing. But hey, I just admitted I don't know so you may not want to take my two cents to the bank for deposit. LOL.

 

Wait...you may be able to deposit this...I thought that the surge of hormones is what can cause a chemical reaction in the brain to cause PPD.

I don't think women who experience PPD are ungrateful. I think it is something they cannot control. Being upset or depressed is one thing...being clinically depressed or having PPD is quite another...it is a physcial reaction. I think that may be like saying that I am not experiencing the blessing of the outdoors because I have allergies.

Now if I misunderstood I apologize.

I personally am afraid of midwives. LOL. I am too uncertain and too used to conventional means. I know there are good and bad in every occupation. I think we all need to do what we feel is best for ourselves and our families. It is good to share and discuss but in the end we can only do what is best for us and what we feel led to do.

 

Ava.. I agree.. the percentage of women who have true ppd I think this is the case with. I think those who are not prepared are really just in culture shock and call it PPD if that makes sense.

 

Okay not sure who it was that said the nurses wouldn't listen when you knew it was time to push and the bed wasn't even ready but I had a similar experience. Even with an epidural I knew! I told the nurses and they agreed to check me even though they thought I still had a long time. One nurse yelled at the other nurse to "get the doctor now!" The doctor came running in and he said he could almost see eyebrows!! I pushed two times and out came Grace! My husband teases me that if I ever had another kid it would probably be born in the car on teh way to the hospital.

 

Your first set of statements there is quite judgmental.

And your second is untrue. In that midwives were not the cause of the problem. Current infant mortality rate percentages in babies delivered in the hospitals by doctors are the same as those delivered at home or in the hospitals by midwives. So obviously the midwife was not the problem.

For the record, my comment about "natural mommas" doing research was not meant to imply that other moms don't. Though I can see how it could have been taken that way. I was just saying that to call them "closed minded" was inaccurate and unfair.

 

I never said anything about infant mortality rates! More WOMEN died in child birth when it was left primarly to midwives.

 

I'm sorry. I misread what you posted.

I'd like to see the statistics you have on that. Comparing CURRENT death rates of mothers between Doctor births and midwife births.

Right now Missouri is in the midst of a huge legal battle to legalize midwifery (one of only 8 states that hasn't yet and the only one that calls them felons). The news channels, who are obviously against the idea, have been throwing around all sorts of statistics to try and prove that midwifery is unsafe. I've yet to hear/read a single one that has said anything about death rates. Matter of fact, they don't actually compare the two practices at all. They just talk about the educational backgrounds. As if that is the only "proof" they need.

If it really was true that midwives were causing mothers (or babies) to be harmed, someone somewhere would be throwing around some numbers. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that I'd really like to see the numbers you got that from.

Now, if you're talking about historic numbers, then you're actually comparing modern living conditions to those of premodern peoples. And again, that has nothing to do with midwives.

Keep in mind that I had three hospital births. I have yet to use a midwife. I probably would if I had another baby, but I'm obviously not against hospital births. I just think that if you're going to pin a lot of deaths on a group of people, it's be best to back up your accusations.

And for the record, midwives also know when interventions are necessary. Some of my friends were shuttled to the hospital hours before the birth because the midwife foresaw complications and refused a home delivery. Others were taken immediately after the birth because of complications. Midwives are not untrained bafoons. They know their stuff, sometimes studying for 10+ years before beginning their practice. And they have a lot less to learn than a doctor (i.e. no need to know how to perform a c-section).

 

If you want to scare me this Halloween dress up like a midwife.






Ok...please know that statement was made completely out of inexperience and ignornace. lol. I know plenty of women who had wonderful experiences with midwives. I know women who had terrible experiences with docs. I know the opposite of that is true also. Flawed people will produce flawed results.

 

ROFLMBO