Thursday, June 10, 2010

annoyed

I have a new pregnancy pet peeve. It has nothing to do with heart burn or swollen ankles, I am starting to get a little annoyed by people publicly congratulating themselves on deciding to forego pain medication and give birth naturally. They brag about all the benefits and how their babies will be more alert, latch on better, stronger, basically possess super human traits, and in every way start out life already totally kicking other babies' cute little bums. For some, their pride at taking on natural childbirth makes them feel like they are somehow better than those of us weaklings who are realistic about their pain thresholds and want to rely on modern medicine to help the birthing process. I have no problem with people who actually have given birth naturally or plan to, kudos to them in fact, however I don't think this empowers people to be so condescending about others' birth choices. Millions of babies have been born with epidurals and somehow manage to embrace life just fine. So for me, bring on the meds, I prefer to give birth without begging people to kill me and put me out of my misery. Maybe someday I will feel differently, however for now I strongly stand beside my decision to be a wimp.

11 comments:

darbs said...

100% hear you! i caught a lot of flack for being a bottle feeding mom. same kind of thing. but for me it was knowing what i could and couldn't do. any you know what? my kids are totally fine!

i do wish others would just realize that everyone needs to do what's right for themselves and their family.

Nancy said...

Yea for drugs!

I agree completely with darbs... you need to do what is best/right for you, your family, and your baby and other people should not be allowed to judge you for it.

And as someone who HATES breastfeeding, I've done it as long as I could with each of my kids (varying from 1 month to 5 months and 7 months of pumping and fortifying my breast milk with formula to make it high calorie for Little Guy). As long as you are doing your best... no one has any room to judge you. I always felt especially looked down upon for not loving breastfeeding, and not being comfortable with it. But I did what I could and my kids are perfectly healthy. And they were all drugged at birth. So there!

Erica said...

No one who makes it through child birth is a wimp - meds or no meds. It's hard no matter what! Good luck!!

Paige said...

Amen sista!!! Medicine was created for a reason...use lots of it! :) However, if your baby does have super powers I hope she has super shopping abilities just like yours. I've missed your blogs p.s. and I miss you! When do we get a prego picture? I need to see your cute belly. And I'm pretty sure your baby will kick butt either way.

Kristan said...

I'm totally judging you :)

Danielle said...

I've done it both ways (natural not by choice), and I DEFINITELY prefer drugs! That way you can actually enjoy every bit of the birth process. And, there was totally no difference between alertness or anything for mine. And I agree with Erica- no one giving birth is a wimp!

Danielle said...

I forgot- even my mom always said that it's not as if we would choose to have a cavity filled without medicine! Same thing, right?

-M- said...

I think the important thing is to just get the baby out. :) You're wonderful and whatever you decide will be the right thing for you. I just wanted to comment. :)

janel said...

The only birth that I wanted to actually hold my daughter after it all happened was the one with the epidural. In the others I was just wondering if my body had ripped in half.

wendys said...

I had actually the opposite experience. When I told people I was going to attempt a natural childbirth with my first.... 95% of people were extremely critical and discouraging and told me I was an idiot for even trying that of course I should automatically get an epidural. Same with breastfeeding. If I mentioned breastfeeding for a year, they could come up with 10 million reasons it was a bad thing to do and I was dumb for even trying. It really goes both ways. I think people criticize other peoples choices because they are trying to defend their own, no matter what they may be. I wish I had had more support from my family with all the decisions I was trying to make.

Rach said...

Dude, if you can use the drugs, use the drugs. My older boy was born while I was on an epidural, and I think he's pretty stinkin[ smart. He did just fine as a baby. Plus, I took a nap after I got the epidural, and it was glorious.