I would consider myself someone who is "for" natural birth. I wasn't always this way mostly because I didn't education myself about birth until after I had my sweet little girl. As someone who has had experience giving birth both naturally and medicated, I want to tell all the mamas of the world that whatever decisions you made about your birth experience(s) as long as you feel empowered and happy about those decisions then there is no reason someone should be able to make you feel guilty!
I know when I share my feelings about natural birth I am in no way trying to hurt someone's feelings or make them feel bad about how they brought their little sweetie into this world. I just want so desperately for women to feel love and support and to know that THEY have the power to make the decisions. When I try to encourage others to learn more about natural birth I am not trying to say I am better then them or that what they have done is bad I just want to share my feelings about how amazing I felt after I gave birth naturally, I felt like I was on top of the world! I was able to get out of bed and shower probably less then an hour after I gave birth I don't know why, maybe I am crazy, but I think that is amazing! I just feel so empowered by how strong my body is and I want every mama to feel that way too! No woman should feel hurt, bullied, or any negativity when it comes to giving birth.
I had two very different birth experiences and I wouldn't trade either of them. After I had Emily I felt alone and hurt mostly because I hadn't prepared myself to have a voice and to be able to stand up for myself. I didn't know that feeling like that wasn't normal. I brushed my feelings aside and told myself that is just how it is and that I was being silly for feeling that way. When I finally learned that those feelings weren't "just how it was" I was able to heal and learn about what I wanted the next time I gave birth and just because my decisions were for an un-medicated birth with no interventions doesn't mean that those decisions are right for you.
I was able to attend two births that weren't my own. One was a un-medicated home birth and one was a medicated hospital birth. They were very different from each other but at the same time they had a lot of things in common, the most important things were that they both had amazing support groups, that they knew what they wanted and they weren't bullied into making decisions they didn't want. If I described what I witnessed at these births you wouldn't be able to tell which one was medicated or un-medicated. I saw a husband holding his wife's hand with so much love and respect, I saw a huge smiles when the babies cried for the first time, I saw tears of joy and love. I heard "You are doing amazing!" and "I love you so much!" I heard care providers kindly give advice.
So mamas whether you had your baby at home, in a car, at the hospital, via adoption or gestational carrier, naturally, or medicated if you are feeling guilty or sad about your birthing experience please look deeper and deal with those feelings because if you don't you will never be able to heal or realize that you are amazing and that no matter how you brought those sweet angels into the world you did the right thing!
Love a mama doing the best she can!!!
