What is your best advice for a laboring patient who wants to avoid medical intervention? (ie: epidural, pitocin, c-section)
Labor at home as long as possible, provided your water hasn’t broken and you aren’t high risk. Move around, take a warm bath and use birthing ball. Perhaps hire a doula and make a birth plan. Also, understand that your desires can change as labor evolves. Respect your right to make and amend decisions.
Have your primary care with a midwife.
Hire a doula,
Go online and look up “Baby-spinning”.
Ask your nurses to not offer pain medications and tell them you will ask for them if you want them.
Be mobile during labor and change positions frequently.
Hope that helps!
Lisa, L&D, Mother Baby RN and IBCLC of 17 years
Get out of bed and move. The shower is a life saver for these mamas! And of course… prepare ahead of time. Don’t come in and think winging it is a good idea. Research coping mechanisms and see what will work for you.
Don’t. Simply; labor is not something anyone can control. First lesson in parenting-you are not in control of how long or how well or how it goes, like kids. Kids are unpredictable and sometimes inconvenient and sometimes change the plan. NO one gets a trophy or prize because they avoided medical interventions. As an L&D nurse for 10yrs in high volume hospital-the bigger your “birth plan” the higher the chance for opposite and OR. Release your control and just be part of the process. Enjoy the hours before you become mom. Don’t put that unnecessary pressure on yourself for what? Even c-section pit-Ed, epiduralized kids are adored by their mamas years later.