| I know a lot of people imply that a drug free vaginal birth is the best thing ever, but it certainly wasn't for me. An epidural was a great blessing when I couldn't cope with the pain anymore. Do not beat yourself up about having one if it comes to that. We are lucky to live in an age where we can choose to have pain relief if we need it.
There are enough things to worry about in parenting without beating yourself up about things that, in the end, are really not a big deal. My attitude to the birth of my two children was that I was only going to do this twice in life, and I just wanted to get through it without traumatising myself and my body for the rest of my life. My first birth was vaginal and the tear and scar tissue made things very uncomfortable for me for many months, and even now (3 years later) I can't have things like a pap smear without a lot of pain.
Just do the right thing for you and your body, and accept that preconceived ideas of what is the right thing might change when the time actually comes.  |