MIA and the pre-birth story

I can't believe we are almost at the end of the March... sorry March has ended. April has began. Where has the time gone? Oh, yeah, survival with 3 girls... actually it really hasn't been too bad. Except for someone in our household being sick since... um... the beginning of December, we aren't doing too badly. Winter will end and warm weather will come, banishing the germs from our bodies. Please may this be true!

I've been following several blogs about Heartline, an organization (no, more than an organization, but you will have to read for yourself) that provides pre-natal care for women in Haiti. That is so simplistic, I'm ashamed to even write it that way. You just have to read some of the postings from two of the links in my sidebar, Sit a Spell and Livesay [Haiti] Weblog.

The reason I am talking about these blogs is because just before Elizabeth was born, I started reading these blogs and was especially drawn to the stories of teenage moms preparing to give birth in a third world country, still devastated by an earthquake from a year ago, without all the luxuries I knew I would have going into the birth of my third child. It put so much into perspective for me.

Even before reading their stories, I started asking myself, could I give birth without the benefit of an epidural (which I had for both Hannah and Grace... AND was EXTREMELY grateful for!)? I had read other birth stories and heard the experiences of my friends (well, portions of the experiences of my friends). My epidural with Hannah was a blessing. I don't how many more hours of back labor I could have done without it. It allowed me to sleep and therefore have the energy I needed to deliver her. My epidural with Grace wasn't so smooth. It hurt going in; took an hour and a half to take effect; and I suspect caused me to need 3 months of physical therapy to be able to sit/lay/roll over without pain. Could I do a delivery without it? Should I try? Why was I doing it?

I spoke to the midwife who was with me for the delivery of Grace and asked her about the possibility of delivering without the epidural. She was very honest with me... it is hard for women to go that route after experiencing the relief that an epidural brings. But in the back of my mind I wondered if the momentary pain of delivery was worth the potential aftereffects that I experienced with Grace. The other part of me wondered if I was "woman" enough to do it.

Yep... my pride talking... I fully confess that, but there was another part of me that really wanted to "get it." Get what women for YEARS have done over and over again. I wanted to be able to support other women, who for whatever reason (personal choice or no choice at all), went through a birth without an epidural or other very beneficial medication-assisted birth.

Please do not read what I am NOT saying... there is nothing wrong with those choices. If we had another child (not likely), I would want to have those options available and I fully support women who make the choice I made twice. Personally, I would always wonder if I could do it differently and so... this thinking leads to THE STORY... (to be continued).