If you’re pregnant, you have a very big choice to make when it comes to your delivery. How will you do it? Will you be using an epidural or going through with it drug-free? Before you make any final decisions, it is best to be informed about both choices, since there are actually a lot of things you might not know about them. Here are the pros and cons of natural birth and epidural-assisted birth.
Epidural-Assisted Birth
The biggest advantage to choosing an epidural is the fact that it makes you feel less pain during labor. It does that by blocking all the nerve impulses that are sent from the lower parts of the spine. Take into consideration that the pain in question is a lot more intense than what you’re used to feeling, especially in everyday life. Being aware of this makes the majority of pregnant women opt for epidural-assisted birth. However, an epidural has some disadvantages as well.
Choosing an epidural might be the best choice for women who have a very low pain tolerance. In some cases, you won’t even be given the choice. For example, many sources say that if you are scheduled for a C-section, the staff will have to give you an epidural regardless of your wishes. But if that’s not the case, you might want to think about it some more, since one of the side effects of an epidural is losing consciousness of what’s happening to you during labor.
Natural Birth
When it comes to natural birth, it might be better to start by talking about its disadvantages, since they’re a lot more obvious than the pros. The biggest one is the fact that it leaves you with no protection from all the pain you’re going to experience during labor. For many women, this is reason enough to choose epidural-assisted birth. But things are a lot more complicated than that; you might be surprised to hear some of the pros of giving birth naturally.
More and more women opt for a natural birth, and here are the two main reasons why. First, many women are saying that going into labor without the help of medication can limit the pain but, it might not be as easy to feel pushing and to be as present and intentional during delivery. In addition, you have a number of options to choose from, including but not limited to traditional and water birth. Second, experts are starting to believe epidurals can have a negative effect on the child, long- term which is reason enough to at least consider the option of natural child birth.
