How bad does it hurt to give birth without an epidural?

All I can tell you is that if you can have a natural birth, it is worth it. It has been my own personal observation over 35 yrs of helping women have babies that I have noticed that nurses would prefer that mothers in labor have an epidural so that the mother is quiet and is not bothering them any more.

Epidurals are not without their dangers and perils to mothers and babies; you signed off on this when you got your epidural, but were you really informed? While you may not have felt anything during the active phase of labor or postpartum, did you know that your baby got the same dose of drugs that you got?

An epidural is a combination of two opioids, opine based drugs which are absorbed into your system and do affect baby. It can take baby up to six weeks to metabolize the drugs they are exposed to in labor. It has a definite negative effect on breastfeeding. Epidural use also increases the risk for a Cesarean section as it immobilizes the mother and relax the muscles of the pelvic floor which can cause arrest of descent during pushing stage. There are a lot of negative outcomes associated with epidurals. for moms, issues with back pain for life is a pretty common side effect that is severely under reported. And a few moms have died from a misplaced epidural. Then if you take in the fact that they may only provide relief on one side, cause horrible itching, can bottom out your blood pressure. For some women, they are an incredible tool that can help a woman through labor. Birth is not torture, it is a normal physiological function of the body and our body supplies us with wonderful hormones and natural pain relief.

As for the epidural working, there are no guarantees of anything. Labor is different in every woman and each labor is different in each woman. Epidurals are known to be wonderful yet there are instances in which the epidural has numbed the mother's legs, but she feels everything in the abdomen. Not fun! Or the right side is numb and the left side is not. Remember, no guarantees.

According to Henri Goer "Contrary to what most women in labor are told by doctors, drugs injected into the spine do cross the placenta: epidural effects on the baby revolve primarily around maternal hypotension and can result in reduced circulation, which may lead to fetal depression or a “sleepy” baby, just one of the myriad effects of the cascade of interventions and complications that often follows epidurals"

I have had four natural births. I only had a moderate, dull ache with contractions. It was not severe pain. The difference is that with proper training and practice, you can prevent uterine cramps during contractions, then the only pain you have is from the cervix stretching. I used the Bradley method with all my births. It has a 90% success rate of natural birth. I practiced daily for over two months while I was pregnant. It makes a tremendous difference.

Well let's just say that every chick I know who wanted to do a natural birth ended up screaming for an epidural when it got close to pushing time.