Talking to moms about their options for pain relief usually yields me very similar answers: I did my homework and I chose an epidural. My next question is always, what else did you consider? The vast majority say nothing.
This always leaves me feeling a bit puzzled - how can you make a choice if you only have one option? One of the first times I had this conversation was with a good friend, who had her baby years before we met. I asked her what her thought process was going into pregnancy and birth surrounding pain medication for labor. She said, "I didn't want to writhe around, so I got an epidural." Before I could stop myself, the automatic thing out of my mouth was, "There are other options other than writhing or an epidural."
She honestly had never considered that thought. In her mind, there were women who had epidurals and women who didn't. It was as simple as that. No one had ever told her that she had choices, lots of them.
Do you know what all of your choices are when it comes to relieving labor pain?
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Epidural or nothing? originally appeared on About.com Pregnancy & Childbirth on Monday, June 4th, 2012 at 08:54:46.
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