Fear of natural birth increases C-section rate

Thank you Nerf, for all your help as well.

B

another 'like' for bulelwam

Hi ladies, I would love to attend a hypnobirthing course but unfortunately, due to logistics and finances I'm unable to.
What I have done tho is do a lot of research on it online and I have managed to get a lot of information on relaxation.
I have to say, since I have started to practice what I have learnt, I can see the benefits already but I am in no way predicting how the birth is going to be like.

I am 36weeks and have been having a lot of BH. I have used them to practice my relaxation and I can definitely feel the difference now than when I started.
Now my body does not tense anymore and most importantly my mind doesn't go into fear mode.
It funny coz I thought of myself as not being afraid of labour pains but boy when the BH hit, my mind automatically goes to tense flea mode, even though I'm not in labour yet so I could imagine how it will go if I do go into labour and don't have the relaxation techniques.

With what I have learnt, I am hoping for a good birth experienc.

B

I am starting to wish that Moomie had 'Like' buttons.

So many great comments.

Sorry to hear about the difficults births for those that had them, my first was a very difficult and painful experience from which I ended with 12 stitches due to 2nd degree tearing and episiotomy.

Through HypnoBirthing though I did realise how much mental preparation is a big part of birthing and that tension was the route cause of the problem.
Once I learnt how the body actually worked and is made to give birth I felt better prepared and ended up having my son in a little over an hour and a half with no pain, no medication and no stitches.

So yes, pain-free birth is achievable, but I fully appreciate how bloody awful it can be for some too!

I gave natural birth - Luke was 3.825kg - and as painful as it was - I Id do it again!

Julz - I agree with you. Gyneas nowadays just seem to see c-sec's as the easy way out. I had a friend that was terrified of birthing naturaly (she is 1.6 and weighs 50kgs) - she wanted a c-sec, but the gynea persuaded her to try natural birth. She had her baby without any painmeds! So - i realy think the gynea plays a great role.

I on the other side - i was horrified of having a c-sec. Even with early onset of labour, my boy being on the small side - he stood by my descision not to have a c-sec. He inspired me to give birth without painmeds - and after giving birth i felt that i could conquer the world. And i would give birth again - any day of the week. Sad thing is - when we saw another gynea (he treated me with the first onset of labour when my gynea was outa town) and told him I was only in labour for 45 minutes, and all went excellent. His response was "it does not always work out that positive". He wanted to do a csec first time around...

I think the increased fear of normal birth is realy partly due to gyneas not giving all the facts. But that is my opinion!

Maybe fear isn't the right term. Maybe tension describes it best. The pain would be less if you are more relaxed. When your muscles are less tense.

I find this with any pain. I have had a few emergencies and not knowing what is wrong creates tension, even fear and I tense up making it worse. Then I stress because I have to go to hospital again so I usually have more pain on the way to the hospital, BUT when I get there and I know I am in good hands, I relax a bit more and the pain sometimes becomes more manageable. I know this isn't birth related but my way of explaining how pain can cause tension thus making the pain worse.

I am not on meds to help my pain. What meds? Anti depressants and blood pressure meds which relax a person. They relax the muscles thus causing the pain to subside.

Remember that drugs like pethadine do not take the pain away or the cause of pain. It purely changes chemistry thus relaxing us so the pain is still there, but it just doesn't seem as bad.