Birth Videos: Hospital Epidural and Unmedicated Home Birth
I wanted to share these three birth videos because they are of the same mom, experiencing both hospital birth with an epidural and home water birth. Her first two babies were born in the hospital with epidural and her third baby was born at home. It could be valuable to watch her different experiences if you are wondering about the differences of hospital birth with an epidural and natural birth (without pain medication and intervention). Remember that natural birth could take place in a hospital, birth center, or home, and that it will be a different experience for each mother.
Some things to notice about these videos:
-Her births in the hospital are very laid back. She cannot feel very much because of the epidural. Because she cannot feel, she needs help to prop her legs up when it is time to push baby out. She also needs doctors to tell her when to push.
-Her home water birth is also very relaxed, but she is experiencing all of the sensations of giving birth. She remains calm and focuses on relaxing as much as she can. Her body tells her when to push, and her midwife reminds her to try to relax and have slow pushing to prevent tearing. (While with an epidural she needs to be told to push, without an epidural, her body already knows when to push, she just needs to be reminded to relax and go slowly.)
-Notice that with natural birth, moms often move around a lot. It helps labor progress more smoothly and quickly. In a hospital birth with the routine equipment, a mother may not be able to move around as much. If she has an epidural she won't be able to move her legs and will need to stay in bed to be attached to equipment. If you are considering a natural hospital birth, you will want to ask to make sure you will be able to move around during labor. Rather than strapping the baby heart monitor to your stomach, they can check the heartbeat periodically instead of continuously.
-These videos are made to be viewer friendly. There are intense parts of birth that are not shown in these videos, but notice that labor is not non-stop intensity. From early labor, to pushing baby out, mom has breaks between contractions and is calm and happy during breaks.
A caution: When you watch a birth video on youtube, it's almost guaranteed that a billion other birth videos will pop up on the side of the one you are watching. I would caution against randomly watching scary videos that are meant to grab your attention. People like to have a lot of views on their videos, and a lot of people will make birth look traumatic or super dramatic to get media attention. I'd suggest you be wise about which videos you choose to watch. Watch videos that inspire you and feel right to you. Don't watch things that make you scared of giving birth and that seem unnatural or frightening. Watching all of the traumatic scary birth situations will not help you to prepare and have the birth experience you want. Watching normal, realistic, positive, and encouraging videos will best help you prepare to have a beautiful birth experience. Remember, emergencies are extremely rare. Rather than preparing for every possible emergency, plan to have a normal birth and focus on preparing for that. Your care provider will know what to do in an emergency situation, but you thinking about all the emergencies that could happen will most likely just instill fear in you and make it hard for you to have a good birth experience. Do be prepared, but don't dwell on all of the bad things that could happen. Focus on trusting your body and having positive thoughts.
Content of videos: These videos are not graphic videos. They are made to be viewer friendly, but they do show real labor and birth. In the home birth video, the mother is wearing a top, but not wearing anything on bottom while she is in the tub. Because she is in water, it is not very revealing (you can only really see her legs).
Here are the videos:
1st Birth (Hospital birth with epidural): https://youtu.be/gUOsy4bS2ZE
2nd Birth (Hospital birth with epidural): https://youtu.be/i0ZQpy-ofSE
3rd Birth (Home water birth): https://youtu.be/BlYuiEwgMBA
Some things to notice about these videos:
-Her births in the hospital are very laid back. She cannot feel very much because of the epidural. Because she cannot feel, she needs help to prop her legs up when it is time to push baby out. She also needs doctors to tell her when to push.
-Her home water birth is also very relaxed, but she is experiencing all of the sensations of giving birth. She remains calm and focuses on relaxing as much as she can. Her body tells her when to push, and her midwife reminds her to try to relax and have slow pushing to prevent tearing. (While with an epidural she needs to be told to push, without an epidural, her body already knows when to push, she just needs to be reminded to relax and go slowly.)
-Notice that with natural birth, moms often move around a lot. It helps labor progress more smoothly and quickly. In a hospital birth with the routine equipment, a mother may not be able to move around as much. If she has an epidural she won't be able to move her legs and will need to stay in bed to be attached to equipment. If you are considering a natural hospital birth, you will want to ask to make sure you will be able to move around during labor. Rather than strapping the baby heart monitor to your stomach, they can check the heartbeat periodically instead of continuously.
-These videos are made to be viewer friendly. There are intense parts of birth that are not shown in these videos, but notice that labor is not non-stop intensity. From early labor, to pushing baby out, mom has breaks between contractions and is calm and happy during breaks.
A caution: When you watch a birth video on youtube, it's almost guaranteed that a billion other birth videos will pop up on the side of the one you are watching. I would caution against randomly watching scary videos that are meant to grab your attention. People like to have a lot of views on their videos, and a lot of people will make birth look traumatic or super dramatic to get media attention. I'd suggest you be wise about which videos you choose to watch. Watch videos that inspire you and feel right to you. Don't watch things that make you scared of giving birth and that seem unnatural or frightening. Watching all of the traumatic scary birth situations will not help you to prepare and have the birth experience you want. Watching normal, realistic, positive, and encouraging videos will best help you prepare to have a beautiful birth experience. Remember, emergencies are extremely rare. Rather than preparing for every possible emergency, plan to have a normal birth and focus on preparing for that. Your care provider will know what to do in an emergency situation, but you thinking about all the emergencies that could happen will most likely just instill fear in you and make it hard for you to have a good birth experience. Do be prepared, but don't dwell on all of the bad things that could happen. Focus on trusting your body and having positive thoughts.
Content of videos: These videos are not graphic videos. They are made to be viewer friendly, but they do show real labor and birth. In the home birth video, the mother is wearing a top, but not wearing anything on bottom while she is in the tub. Because she is in water, it is not very revealing (you can only really see her legs).
Here are the videos:
1st Birth (Hospital birth with epidural): https://youtu.be/gUOsy4bS2ZE
2nd Birth (Hospital birth with epidural): https://youtu.be/i0ZQpy-ofSE
3rd Birth (Home water birth): https://youtu.be/BlYuiEwgMBA
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