Yes, Even YOU Can Give Birth Naturally

As many of you know, I’ve had my share of fertility issues since Hunter and I first started trying to grow our family. While a typical reaction to this would have been to allow myself to feel stuck in my circumstances and attempt to fix my issues using the latest and greatest medical interventions, these issues actually led me down a path of natural healing. I began looking into what many call the “crunchy” lifestyle, which basically means consuming and using products that are natural and low or non-toxic. It also means caring for the body in a holistic way and trusting God’s natural designs for our bodies and their processes. This is where I learned about natural birth.

As I took on this lifestyle change, I began removing the products and food from our home that contained ingredients that had the potential to cause things like endocrine disruption, hormone disruption, cancer, brain issues, gut dysfunction, autoimmune disorders, etc. I was doing this all in the hopes of creating the best possible environment for my body to grow a baby. The more I learned about the potential dangers of these things, the more passionate I became about this lifestyle. Natural birth, however, was a bit more of a daunting commitment than something like changing the shampoo brand I had always used.

If you had asked me at any time before this if I would ever consider a natural birth, I would have said (and actually have said), “Absolutely not! They can shoot that epidural straight up my back!” Oh, young Kaylene. If only you knew what you’d go on to do.

I began learning about the benefits of having a natural birth and the risks associated with having a hospital birth and an epidural. Of course there were going to be risks regardless of where I delivered because sometimes birth can take a scary turn, but I was healthy, young and at a low-risk for any birth complications, so there was great potential for me to have a perfectly peaceful and safe natural birth in a birthing center. After doing lots of research and listening to, reading and watching tons of natural birth stories, I decided to commit to having a natural birth and Hunter committed to supporting me through it.

This was a big decision and not one I took lightly. Many people have been curious about and even flat-out disturbed by the fact that I chose to do this. Some doubted that I’d actually go through with it and most thought I was crazy and couldn’t understand why anyone would subject themselves to such an immense amount of pain. You may be thinking some of these thoughts to yourself now. So allow me to share with you some facts that I learned that helped influence my decision…

First, in a hospital setting, many women are pressured to be induced by 39 weeks. This can be for a variety of reasons, but OBGYN’s typically want to avoid any possible risk of complication by allowing the baby to stay in too long. However, only about 2-3% of women give birth on their due date and first time moms will, on average, deliver their baby a whole 8 days “late”. They are pushing moms to get the baby out as soon as possible, when that baby (and mom’s body) simply aren’t ready. There are times when induction can be helpful and even necessary, however, this should not be as standard of a practice as it is currently.

Many women are also told at this point in pregnancy that the baby is getting too big to deliver vaginally and they should be delivered now to avoid a c-section. However, the scans and assessments they are doing are providing them with a best guess at the baby’s size. It is also very rare for a woman to carry a baby that her body cannot deliver. Pelvic abnormalities and big babies exist, but they are not common enough to recommend every woman be induced as soon as possible.

Some women even choose induction because their doctor is on call and they would like the doctor that’s seen them through their pregnancy be the one to deliver their baby. This one breaks my heart. You’ve seen one doctor throughout the entire 9 months of your pregnancy and they have walked with you through the preparation of the biggest, most intense thing you will have ever done and now there’s a high likelihood that they won’t even be there when the big day comes. It’s sad to know that women are so desperate for the comfort of their current provider that they are feeling pressured to be induced just to have that person deliver their baby. Even if a woman chooses to do this, birth can be a very lengthy process and it’s possible that your doctor could be there when you get induced and be gone by the time you finally give birth.

When a woman is induced, she is typically given Pitocin, which is a synthetic version of our hormone oxytocin. In a natural birth, oxytocin signals the uterus to contract, causing contractions to come in waves, with some more intense than others. The body is typically able to do exactly what it needs to get that baby out efficiently, while also being gentle enough to prevent any fetal distress. Pitocin, however, is pumped into a woman’s body at increasing levels, gradually causing stronger and more painful contractions, one on top of another, which is naturally (or not so naturally) going to cause the mom to need some sort of pain relief, that typically being the epidural. These intense contractions can also cause fetal distress because they are being artificially regulated and the body can’t slow them down if labor becomes too stressful and where there is fetal distress, there is typically an emergency c-section. Here’s where we typically see what’s referred to as the “cascade of interventions”. You start with Pitocin, which makes you want an epidural, which can cause you to need a c-section.

The epidural itself may provide pain relief, but many women are not being told the risks associated with epidurals. Once a woman gets an epidural, she is usually then restricted to laying on her back in the hospital bed, which is one of the most difficult positions to give birth in, since the sacrum cannot move easily, which allows the baby more space to come out. The woman can also likely no longer feel her contractions, making her unaware of when she needs to push and even confused about how to push, since she can’t feel what she’s doing. This typically causes the pushing stage of labor to last much longer, since the woman is often struggling to know what her body needs to do and how to respond appropriately. Women are also not being told that an epidural won’t just affect her body, but also has the potential to affect her baby. Epidurals used to contain morphine, but over the past 10 years, there has been a switch to the use of Fentanyl. Fentanyl is 50-100x stronger than morphine, so it makes sense that this drug could cause some issues. Studies have shown that if a mom has an epidural in her system for 12 hours or longer, the newborn baby she delivers can test positive for fentanyl in their system and it can stay in the babies blood for up to 48 hours. These babies are then having to experience withdrawal symptoms like extreme fussiness, lethargy, and discomfort.

Having a baby that’s dealing with a withdrawal from a powerful drug is now going to impact nursing. The baby is too lethargic to nurse, so the mom’s body isn’t signaling that it needs to start making milk. Of course, the baby still has to eat, so they’re given formula. Gradually, it just becomes easier to give formula since they’re already used to it and nursing is such a challenge already, even in perfect circumstances. Now mom and baby will miss out on that sweet bonding that comes with nursing and the baby will miss out on the healing properties within breast milk.

Hear me out, epidurals can be extremely helpful to women and sometimes they are necessary. When a woman has labored for hours and hours, without making progress and her body is exhausted, an epidural can provide enough relief to give her a chance to rest to prepare for the rest of labor. There is also a huge difference between pain and suffering and if a woman is suffering through labor, I think an epidural can be a great help to her. I am by no means judging or criticizing anyone who has gotten an epidural. All I want to do is provide women with another perspective that they aren’t likely to be given in a hospital setting. You deserve to make an informed decision. You deserve to be the one to decide if the benefits are worth the risks.

These are a few of the reasons I felt opposed to giving birth in a hospital. I know women who absolutely loved their hospital births and had wonderful experiences there, so I don’t mean to say that no one should ever give birth there. However, I also know women who had really scary birth experiences in the hospital and felt like their birth was completely out of their control. I simply want you to have this information that isn’t often given to new moms. You have options. Your birth experience is your baby’s too.

I knew myself and after learning these things about a typical hospital birth, I knew I didn’t want an epidural, but also knew that if I allowed myself to be in a hospital setting, I would have a very hard time resisting any pain relief that could so easily be handed to me. This is one reason why I decided to give birth at a local birth center. I knew that this would give me the greatest chance for success with my desire to have a natural birth. Now, allow me to share with you some other reasons I chose to give birth here…

First of all, the Lord had so evidently been a part of our fertility story and was so present throughout my pregnancy. Hunter and I value our faith in Him above everything else, so I wanted to be surrounded by people who could understand this type of relationship with the Lord, especially during an event as strenuous as birth. The birth center I chose was an outspokenly Christian institution and my midwife and doula were very respectful of our faith. In fact, when I arrived to the birth center in labor, my doula immediately turned on my birth playlist filled with worship music without me having to ask her AND the first words out of my midwife’s mouth when my daughter came out were, “Thank you, Jesus.”

Next, I was assured that this was a safe way to give birth. Like I said earlier, I was young, healthy, and was at a low-risk for any birth complications, so giving birth outside of the hospital was not going to be particularly risky for me or my baby. I interviewed my midwife before committing to giving birth at her birth center and hearing about her low transfer rate and her many years of experience doing this helped me feel at peace with our decision to give birth there. I was also assured by the facts. Studies have been done that show that midwives are the safest providers for pregnant women who are low-risk because they tend to use fewer interventions and often have better health outcomes for the mom and baby (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/world/british-regulator-urges-home-births-over-hospitals-for-uncomplicated-pregnancies.html). Also, midwives in the U.S. tend to have a much lower c-section rate on average compared to U.S. OB’s. Learning the facts about the safety of giving birth in a birth center helped me, my husband, and other family members who were worried about this decision feel much more at ease, knowing that, of course, anything can happen, but the risk of a real danger that would require me to be in a hospital was so low. It also helped push me not to live in fear of the worst that could happen. I trusted the Lord to protect my baby and I throughout the whole birth process and made that my constant prayer through my pregnancy.

Also, from the moment I stepped foot in the building, I felt a sense of peace. If you’ve never seen a birth center before, it typically just looks like a house, on the inside and outside. There are different rooms you can birth in, along with bathtubs and different laboring tools scattered throughout, like birth balls, beds, a birthing stool and a rebozo. Giving birth in a place that resembled a welcoming home sounded so peaceful and only further pushed me away from the fluorescent lights of the hospital. I had the freedom to move around, eat and drink, get in or out of water and labor and birth in whatever position I felt most comfortable in. There were essential oils being diffused, peaceful music was playing, the lights were dim, I was in control of the temperature in the room, and I got to sit in a warm bath while I labored. Everything was in place for me to have a successful natural birth and then, I did.

I look back on the birth of my daughter with such fond memories. I am so thankful for the wonderful experience I had at the birth center and it breaks my heart knowing that there are women out there who go into birth feeling completely out of control and as if they have no say in what happens to their body and their baby’s body. This is why I’m writing this today. To show women that they have options. A hospital is not the only place to give birth. You don’t have to be induced or have an epidural if that’s not what you want. Women have been giving birth unmedicated and in their homes for centuries. Our bodies were created with this process in mind. God designed women’s bodies so intricately and precisely to allow us to birth our babies naturally.

Only women are designed with the ability to give birth and only women have the strength to do so. You may doubt your own strength to do something like this, but maybe that’s the point. Maybe birth isn’t meant to be done by your own strength. I’ve had plenty of women tell me they could never give birth naturally because they don’t think they can handle the pain. They make me out to be some super human who must be much stronger than they are. But that’s not true. The only reason I had the strength to commit to a natural birth in the first place was because I leaned on the Lord and pursued what I felt His will for me was. If you feel a conviction from the Lord and your heart is moved to pursue something like natural birth, but you are doubting in your own strength to do it, here’s what the Bible says about the strength the Lord can offer you…

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Isaiah 40:29-31

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait on the Lord will renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 41:10

“fear not, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Psalm 73:26

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Birth can feel daunting. Committing to, or even entertaining the idea of a natural birth can feel impossible. But you were designed by an intentional Creator. He designed your body to be able to do this. We don’t have to fear birth. We don’t have to fear pain or weakness. You were brought to this moment of weakness for a reason. I did not succeed in having a natural birth because I have super-human strength. I could only do it because God brought me to the absolute end of myself so that I had no choice but to rely on His power. There was no other option. And I truly believe that it was designed that way. Motherhood is hard. But birth can be a great way to show us how humbly we should come before God and ask Him for strength when we feel like we can’t go on. When you feel exhausted from being up all night with a newborn or overwhelmed by the messes your toddler makes or frustrated with the choices your teenager is making or like any of these hard moments will not pass, these are the times that it can be helpful to remember what God has already brought you through. God is an ever-present help in our time of trouble (Psalm 46:1) and I believe birth and motherhood make this evident to us because we are forced to rely on Him when we have nothing left.

Before I end this very long post, I want to reiterate the fact that I do not look down on those who have medicated hospital births. I do not think you are weak or selfish for getting an epidural. I do not think all doctors are evil and money-hungry. I am not some hippie trying to convince you to abandon all western medicine and come live in the woods with me where we can raise our babies in a commune (although...) I am writing this simply to provide you with a perspective that is not often heard or considered. I am writing to inform you about the risks, assuming you know the benefits, so that you can make an informed decision about your birth. If you read this and still believe that the hospital is where you should give birth and plan to get an epidural, you will not receive judgement from me. I will simply be happy that you have taken information from both sides and made a decision based on your own convictions. I simply want to remind women of the strength and capabilities God has instilled in us. If you’re feeling conflicted, overwhelmed or confused, pray for peace. Pray for wisdom and discernment as you weigh your options. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” All you have to do is ask. Remember, physically, your body was made to do this. Mentally, your weakness can bring you to a point of complete surrender to the Lord, causing a full reliance on His strength and power. And what a wonderful gift it can be to experience being brought to your lowest and then being lifted up by the power of the Most High.

If you have any questions or comments about this post, please feel free to reach out to me, as this topic has become a passion of mine and I find great joy in walking women through birth and motherhood.