How Birth Affects Breastfeeding
Everyone seems to be on one side or the other when it comes to epidurals. I have read stats that epidurals can cause additional complications 23% of the time. Now, these are not always major complications: they could be episiotomies, tearing or just head-aches.
Most of the mothers that I have talked to were either in the majority (77%), or they did not associate any complications they had with the fact that they had an epidural. This is not surprising, since most of us do not have anything to compare birth with, until we have had lots of children.
We learned in our pre-natal class that the worst position to give birth in is lying on your back, and yet, how often do you see a birth in movies which is anything else? Lying on your back removes the advantage of gravity, and causes more stress on the Perineal since the baby’s weight is on that area only. more info on labour positions
Every woman I have talked to who has had an epidural, has also had a difficult time breast-feeding (ok, I realize this is a really small sample of people, and most women find breast feeding difficult). Then I read an article from Today’s Parent with a section on “How Birth Affects Breastfeeding” which seems to agree.
Now, there are some cases when an epidural is recommended. So while I am going to try to avoid an epidural, I am also going to listen to the Nurses and Doctor and deal with things as they happen. While it is not ideal, an epidural is an option that I might choose.
Cate replied:
Hi there. I linked to your blog through Babes in Blogland. I just had a baby a couple months ago and was experiencing the same stresses before my labor that you are going through now, so I wanted to share my experience. I intended to go without an epidural, but after 17 hours of labor I was stalled at 8 cm and in horrible pain, so I decided to go for it. The epidural allowed me to relax, I quickly became fully dilated, and I was able to keep my energy up through two hours of pushing. Though my baby didn’t feel like eating until about 3 hours after birth, breastfeeding has been fantastic and we did not have any problems.
Good luck! I hope you have a smooth birth and a healthy baby.
January 18, 2007 2:27 pm at 2:27 pm. Permalink.
Erin replied:
Drugs & Birth, its such a complex issue…and I don’t really get why.
For so long women birthed children without! Its just because birth has become a medical event in the past 50 or so years that epidural is standard. I have to admit I have never been interested in hospital birth or drugs during labor. I wish that more of us women were taught from an early age that our bodies are made to birth children…..it can be done naturally with out drugs. Of course there are high-risk mama’s and perhaps that is a different issue when it comes to epidurals. But for those of us who are not high-risk…don’t we want to experience and feel all that is part of birthing a child? Why do we want to numb ourselves to the experience…and possibly end up with an episiotomy or worse, simply because of an epidural? Demand what YOU want when giving birth, not what other want for you.
I wish you a lovely birth!
January 18, 2007 4:52 pm at 4:52 pm. Permalink.
Kirsten replied:
Greetings! I just had to comment on this one! I totally respect each woman’s right to birth however she feels comfortable. I just had to let you know that I am one person who had an epideral and suffered zero complications. No tearing, no episiotomy, no extra-long labor (14 hours from water breaking to delivery.) I breastfed fabulously for a year until my baby self weaned as well.
I personally did not view labor pain as something that I wanted to experience for very long, although I know many women feel this is very important. I guess for me I was able to be very present emotionally because I didnt’ have to focus on distracting myself from the pain during birth, just my baby. It is a personal decision and I just hope that you have a healthy happy baby.
January 19, 2007 5:14 pm at 5:14 pm. Permalink.