I had decided very early in the pregnancy, and probably actually knew before the pregnancy but just hadn't thought much about it, that I wanted to have a natural, completely unmedicated delivery. My main motivations for this initially were that I really do not like strong pain medications and the unwanted side-effects they can have. In my lifetime I have taken 2 prescription pain pills (and I do mean only a total of 2 pills), and I really didn't like the woozy feeling they gave me. My mom had also given birth to my brother, my sister and me without any pain medication, and if she could do it so could I. As my pregnancy progressed and I learned more of the benefits of a drug-free birth and some of the drawbacks of having pain medications or an epidural my desire to have a natural birth was very much reinforced.
Babies born to medicated mothers tend to be a bit groggy, which decreases the odds of having a good start to breastfeeding immediately after delivery. Medications also interfere with the natural chemicals released by the brain, such as oxytocin, which is an important chemical for mother-child bonding. There is also a small chance of spinal cord injury with an epidural.
Perhaps my favorite reasons for going all natural though were because I was free to be out of bed and doing whatever made me feel most comfortable during labor. Women given an epidural are also given a urinary catheter and must remain in bed attached to monitors. During my labor I only had to be in bed for 15 minutes out of every hour so that the baby could be monitored, I was able to spend time laboring on the toilet (yes, I know, not something the average person would think they would want to do, but it really was a good place to labor), on a birthing ball, and in the shower. When second stage labor came (the "pushing stage") I didn't have anyone telling me when to push and counting, I was able to do spontaneous pushing whenever I felt like it, and for as long as I felt like it. I don't have any point of comparison myself, but I really felt like I had a very easy recovery too - I was eating a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast less than 2 hours after Addisyn's birth, and never really experienced anything but some moderate soreness after the birth, even with a second degree tear and stitches.
I will say though that I was very fortunate to have had a very fast, very smooth labor and delivery, especially for a first baby. Here is a quick, non-descriptive summary of my birth story... I had Braxton-Hicks contractions frequently the day before Addisyn was born; I had had them throughout the second half of my pregnancy, but there were much, much more frequent that day. At 2:30AM my water broke, and then the real contractions started and were immediately 2-3 minutes apart. We got ready and left for the hospital about 30 minutes later. I had been dilated to 4cm for the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy, and was 4.5cm when we arrived at the hospital. My labor lasted only 5.5 hours - my water had broken at 2:30AM, Addisyn was born at 7:59AM. I only pushed for about 20 minutes. For those who don't know, the average length of labor for a first baby is 15 hours, the average time spent pushing is 2-3 hours.
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