Another book recommendation from the forum: Birthing From Within (regarding natural childbirth and the fears thereof!).

I am feeling more and more strongly about having a completely natural childbirth (no pain medication at all). The more I read, the more sure I am. At first it was more of a feeling that I’d prefer it that way but was scared at the thought. But the thing is, epidurals tend to slow labor down and make it harder for the baby to be born (because it lightens contractions and makes it hard for the mother to tune in to things and know when to do what). Pitocin sounds just nasty to me – it’s used to induce labor, but makes the contractions WICKED strong, one on top of the other, so they almost always have to give an epidural on top of it. (And the other way around – some epis make contractions lighten so much they have to give pitocin to pick them up… oi vey, what a nasty cycle). Using pain meds (and pitocin) also increases your risk for a c-section, which I want to avoid at all costs unless medically necessary.

I really want to take Bradley classes, and I hope Den gets into it, because he’s going to be my labor coach. He has absolutely no idea what that entails. I get the feeling he thinks he’s going to just sit beside me and hold my hand while I push the kid out. Ha, little does he know… (I also know he’s going to be crying and possibly freaked out with the yucky stuff).