Having a hospital delivery without an epidural is likely going to take some planning. However, with some tips it’s totally do-able.
Having a natural baby delivery is the goal of many women who come in to have a baby. They don’t want to have a home delivery, but they want as close to a natural baby delivery as they can possibly have in the hospital setting.
First off, hello! I’m Hilary — many people know me as The Pregnancy Nurse® 👩⚕️. I have been a nurse since 1997 and I have 20 years of OB nursing experience, I am also the curly head behind this website Pulling Curls and The Online Prenatal Class for Couples. 🩺 I’ve helped hundreds of moms have a natural delivery, and I think I have some tips that can REALLY help you.
Really quick, before we get going — “natural” means something different to everyone. I think going through a birth plan really helps you realize what it means for YOU. Grab my tips here to making your birth plan:
I love natural births. True story: I wanted to go without an epidural. At the time that I had babies of my own, I had a fair number of patients who didn’t have epidurals. I kind of always wondered what it felt like and I really wanted to try it. But, with each children, my labors got longer and by the end I had the triple threat that is almost impossible to natural labor through. Here are my tips for a natural baby delivery {or laboring without an epidural}
This post is part of my series on labor pain management — and in case you’re considering it I have some of the most comprehensive patient-centric epidural info as well!
As with all of my articles, this is informational only, and choices should only be made with your own provider who knows you and your specific circumstances.
Natural Hospital Delivery
Note: In my 20 years of delivering babies, I have VERY rarely seen someone go natural who didn’t put some preparation in. I highly recommend a prenatal class so you know what to expect. This one guarantees to get you & your partner ready (from your couch whenever you can fit it in). The reviews are fantastic!
Natural Childbirth Definition
I think all women have their own definition of what it is. It might be a home delivery, a vaginal delivery, a delivery with very little medical intervention, or delivery without an epidural.
For this post, I’m talking about a delivery without an epidural. Although — in general, that type of delivery has the least amount of intervention, in general as well.
Why would someone want this? Epidurals hurt (especially if you have issues with needles), the process can be painful (and does have risks) and epidurals don’t take away all of your labor pain.
How to Give Birth Naturally Without Pain
I just saw this one gets googled a lot. And let me be the first to tell you that all labors include some pain.
I once had a patient who actually had labor fairly pain-free but then the after-birth pains came and she started screaming her head off. Something weird with her pain receptors… but I am just saying that labor involves pain. Most likely, the most pain you have ever experienced.
What Does Childbirth Feel Like Without an Epidural
Contractions are very similar to both stomach cramps and uterine cramps. It’s just a muscle squeezing — same as both of those. The contractions get more and more intense, closer together, and stronger as it progresses.
The only thing that makes it better is having the baby. Until then labor just gets harder and more painful until delivery {honesty moment}.
Looking for more information on labor — be sure to check out these posts:
- Things That Might Make Labor Tough
- Birth Classes: Everything you need to know to get prepared!
- Splash! Everything To Know About Your Water Breaking
- Weird Symptoms of Labor You Might Be Missing
- Guaranteed Ways to Induce Labor
Tips for having an unmedicated (natural) hospital delivery
1. Don’t get induced.
I think it’s amusing when people walk in at 39 weeks saying they’re just “so miserable” and want to have the baby NOW, but they are planning to go natural.
An induction hurts your natural labor chances in several ways.
- You are hooked up to monitors from hour #1. That means no wandering your house, watching your favorite TV show, showering, napping, peeing. All of that is done with me in the uncomfortable confines of the hospital, most often without food. Boo.
- You’re stuck, so you feel EVERY contraction, instead of being able to go to The Cheesecake Factory and get a cheesecake dural (which I did when I was in early labor with my first). No distraction, unless poor TV choices are your idea of a distraction. We bring contractions on hard, there’s no gradual release into the abyss that is labor. It’s LABOR. Get ‘er done. There are many doctors watching to make sure we nurses up your Pitocin so they can have a baby before they want to go to bed. It’s just how it is.
- There are some “easier” ways to ease you into labor like Cytotec or Cervidil, and then sometimes you kick into labor on your own. Or, you can decide to go home and let nature take its course if that isn’t working for you.
2. Labor as long as you can at home
The longer you’re in the hospital, the longer you have to stay on our monitors, not eat, and not have the comforts & distractions of home.
Sure, go in and get checked, but anymore we don’t believe that active labor starts til’ you’re about 6 centimeters. Feel free to ask to go home until you’re a little further along.
We’d cheer for you. We know being stuck at the hospital is hard. No reason not to labor (as long as everything is going fine) as long as you can at home.
Labor may be different than you imagine — be sure to check out my signs of labor post.
3. Do something about it ahead of time.
Much of your “natural labor” will come down to:
- Learning how to cope with the pain
- Learning to make choices that promotes the labor you want
That isn’t to say that everyone will get the labor they want, but it is to say that your choices can have a broad impact on it.
Learning to cope with pain is often the foundation of many birth classes. The reality is that people are going to feel pain with labor, epidural or no epidural — so, personally I think it’s smart for EVERYONE to learn some pain management coping skills.
The thing is, a lot of these classes focus only on pain management, and not so much on making choices that helps to promote a birth that aligns with what you want.
So, if you’re looking for a birth class that does both — I recommend this birth class — it both prepares you with natural pain management, and managing your labor to promote what’s important to you.
Want more info in this — check out my post on how most birth classes fall short.
4. Hire a doula.
Doulas can be wildly helpful if you…
- Find one who’s great
- Find one who is willing to support you no matter how your birth goes
I’d read a lot of reviews, and decide if it’s worth it.
Unfortunately, a doula wasn’t in our budget on any of my births. Hopefully more insurances will cover them soon.
5. Be upfront with your nurse about what you want.
We get a lot of people who SAY they want to go natural but are totally not married to the idea and cave quickly. If it is something you REALLY want, just tell your nurse.
Be upfront that this is something you’d really like. Tell them you’d prefer they don’t ask you about your pain every hour (a hospital requirement, although I will just chart that patient would like to go naturally and would prefer not to be asked about her pain). Tell them you’d like to not be offered an epidural or even talk about it.
I have a talk with all my natural patients that an epidural is ALWAYS an option, but I won’t bring it up if they would prefer that I don’t. I am ALWAYS on my patient’s side. I will fight for you, but I have to know what you really want. 🙂
6. Be open.
And I’m not just talkin’ about your cervix here. 🙂
If you’ve decided you won’t get an epidural, just prepare for God to test you. To open up the gates of a “sunny side up” presentation, or getting stuck at 9 centimeters. You need to be aware that it is going to be VERY painful, and if it is putting you over the edge, you need to do something about it. If you are stressed to the max, you send out stressors to your baby. When they come out, they’re stressed out too, and they don’t want to breathe. Not good.
Again, I love natural labor. I just think you need to be prepared and educated to go into it. TONS of women do it, it just requires extra effort, and some luck. 🙂
If you’re looking to:
- Get your partner as a teammate — not just a cheerleader
- Get prepared FAST (this isn’t some marathon 20-hour birth class — thank GOODNESS)
- Be prepared by an expert
I love what Casey said:
“I feel like I got my monies worth with Hilary’s online class. She gets to the point and comes across as real but also communicating well. I watched these with my husband and we both gained a lot of insight. I recommend her program.”
Not sure we’re a good fit check out my free class — It’s your first step towards being your own birth boss.
FYI, this post was written in Sept 2015 and it has been updated.
Kate says
I woulf say to,do ALl of that in,order to increase your success of a natural,birth. Doulas are amazing support for mom and dad, takes the stress away from,the unknown. Hypnobabies WORKS. I can truly say my labor WAS pain free. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard or uncomfortable. It’s mind over matter, you have to be confident in yourself and trust yoir body.I would also recommend not listening to other people’s horror stories. Everyone wants to tell you how horrible labor is. I can say my experience was amazing, and that it’s entirely possible to give birth naturally and essentially painless. Our bodies were designed to do this- listening to horror stories is just going to break your confidence.
Hilary Erickson says
I agree that listening to stories isn’t a huge help. 🙁 Just look how much they love that baby now — it’s all about the happy ending. 🙂
Lindsey says
So good!
I’ve had an amazing home birth and an amazing in-hospital natural birth (at a supportive hospital that even offered La Basin birth tubs to labor in). For me, its all about the midwife (or OB for some) and if its a good match with what you are wanting.
I also had an incredible experience with using The Pink Kit as a birth education resource. It is produced by a nonprofit called,The Common Knowledge Trust, out of New Zealand, and while I’m hoping they make a version for American audiences, and as long as you understand that the actors in the videos are just volunteers, and not real actors, the information is TRULY helpful in understanding your body on the inside, and knowing how to guide your baby on its journey (down and out). It teaches you how to measure your pelvis, anticipate any challenges or “hang ups” 😉 the baby might have, etc. I got to know my body really well! And their mission is to bring knowledge to mothers that was once shared (as common knowledge) between mother-to-daughter but has been lost. I can’t say enough great things about it. Its very partner focused as well, but since I didn’t have a supportive partner in birth, I studied it all on my own and it still worked great. My doula would just remind me to think through my “pelvic clock” exercises to stay on top of my contractions if I ever felt like they were getting ahead of me mentally. So good!
I think the more education about birth the mother gets, the better!
oh, and they should definitely avoid talking to anyone who wants to share scary birth stories. That’s the worst. No one needs to hear that. Just walk away! 🙂
Hilary Erickson says
That is REALLY interesting about the Pink kit — how cool!
Miranda Hernandez says
Hi, I found you recently on Tribes and started following you on Pinterest because so many of your articles really resonate with me.
I enjoyed reading this article as well, but I do have one important note–you recommended against induction at 39 weeks. I understand why, and having been induced with my second pregnancy, I can attest that induction can be painful. However, I think it’s important to acknowledge the recent findings of the ARRIVE trial and other studies, showing that rates of stillbirth rise for every day a pregnancy proceeds past 39 weeks. Not to imply that everyone should choose induction, because I believe in parental choice, but I also think the information is important to share. If someone had informed me of the risk before I allowed my first pregnancy to go overdue, my son would be alive today.
Hilary Erickson says
My professional organizations disagree as countless other studies point to letting labor happen naturally is better. That being said, I am so sorry for your loss and I would have 100% been induced in that case. 🙁
Miranda Hernandez says
I have seen some organizations are opposed to routine induction, and I can understand that. Above all, I believe in informed choice, so the decision should definitely rest with the parent.
I want to emphasize, though, that I had a low risk pregnancy…up until the moment my son died. So there was no real reason to induce me until it was too late. Sometimes it happens just that fast, and with no or almost no warning.
Hilary Erickson says
Ugh, so, so hard.
I am really sorry, I would 100% get induced next time…