The Business of Being Born and Epidurals

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Last week I finally sat down to watch The Business of Being Born and 2 of the 4 episodes that comprised More Business of Being Born (hoping to finish the other two this week)! These had been recommended to me time and time again and were very interesting. Ricki Lake and her videographer friend (who happens to get pregnant during their time filming) take us through the world of hospitals, midwives, doulas, and all the different options available to women during childbirth. Whether you are hard-core for or against medical intervention in pregnancy, I think it's an important video to watch to see both sides of things.

They focus a lot on Ina May Gaskin, whose book The Guide to Natural Childbirth I read and reviewed over the summer. In the first episode of More Business of Being Born, Ricki and her friends visit the Farm where Ina May lives and delivers babies naturally every day. Seeing what the birthing process is like there, was very interesting. After watching and hearing stories from these women who are so gung-ho for natural childbirth, I was feeling very torn (no pun intended...ok...intended...bleh!) on the subject of epidurals last week, so I listened to the Pregtastic Podcast entitled "Everything Epidurals"

"According to the doctor in this podcast", epidurals are now considered "patient-controlled." Before, it used to be "This is the dosage and this is what you get when you get an epidural" but if someone wants a tiny bit of pain medication to "take the edge off" or if someone wants the full dosage to completely numb their legs and not feel anything...it's up to you. It's all controlled by you. I heard this and thought "Great! Fantastic! How wonderful!"

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From the beginning of pregnancy my stance has been "I would love a natural childbirth, but I am open to an epidural." I don't want to go into it really set on one specific way only to be let down if it doesn't go that one specific way. I'm going in with an open mind. In High School and College I experienced a handful of times when my menstrual cramps were of the "throwing-up-knock-me-to-my-knees-writhing-in-pain" variety, and it was pretty terrible. I remember the time I was sprawled out on the floor of the bathroom at my piano teacher's house waiting for my mom to come pick me up, only to end up throwing up in her toilet. Or the time in college during my FIRST EVER COLLEGE FINAL, unable to go back to the classroom to finish because I was on the bathroom floor of the college building (grosss) and a sweet girl had to go tell my professor what was going on with me. According to my mother, who also experienced this growing up, those cramps were pretty much about the same amount of pain I could one day expect from childbirth, and so I should have an indication of what to expect (just like...triple the time) But, I can't help but think...getting the minimum dosage of pain meds...just a little bit to, as they say, "take the edge off" would be nice.

So when I asked my doctor about this so-called "patient-controlled epidural" on Tuesday, she seemed to have no idea what I was talking about. Epidurals, at least at my hospital, are not patient controlled. You either get the dosage, or you don't. Ugh...I was a bit dismayed to hear this.

So what is your stance, for or against, epidurals? Did/Will you have an epidural? Were you planning or not planning to have one?