What is a natural birth?
Natural birth. What is it?
It seems it means different things to different people.
For some women, natural birth means by birth any means, other than by caesarean. "I had a natural birth" or, "I'm going to go natural" is often said as if the only other option was a caesarean.
But is this the real meaning of "natural"?
I believe there are many ways to have a baby. No way is necessarily right or wrong. What's important is how you want to birth your baby and then matching your wishes to the available birth options so that you are cared for by someone who is most likely to assist you in the type of birth you desire.
For me, a natural birth is one in which there is no intervention or interference in the normal, natural process. For this to occur, there would be no medical forms or induction or speeding up the labour with drugs, there would be no medical forms of pain relief, no instruments used to assist the baby's birth and of course no caesarean.