Hi. I'm Jennifer and I am active in the childbirth community in Pheonix AZ. I just wanted to know if there we're any other homebirth moms out there. (Just to qualify, my daughter was supposed to be a homebirth, but she wasn't growing, so I weto go to the hospital. After 2 weeks in antipartum, she was born by c-section because I wanted the least ammount of drugs put into her tiny 1 lb, 13 oz body. But if I ever have another baby, I''m planning on laboring at home!!)

Although it wasn't me going through it, I would say it was the epidural.

I am all about the epidural. Why should we go through all that pain, when you dont have to! Hello we go through 40 weeks of some kind of pain

i am all for the epidural and demeral. i slept threw about 90% of my 11 1/2 hour labor thanks to those two. if they have the medicine so we dont feel pain than why not use it

I gave birth both times without epiderals/drugs and I'd do it again my kids are 10 years apart and the last one was all back labor...it was hard but i stayed home in labor monday night 8pm until midnight wednesday(when I decided I needed to be at the hospital) and delivered her at 1:44am wednesday morning at the hospital :D I just stayed home as long as I could so I didn't have to be at the hospital as long .... i was dilated 8cm by the time i got there!

I gave birth three times, and every time was an event. When my son (16) was born, it took me less the 4 hrs from the moment labor started to giving birth. I had no time to think...it happened so fast. Then came along my daughters (10-12 yrs later), and for the first time I knew what pain was. My 6yr old was (total) 49 hours of labor, 3 hrs of pushing and I finally said (after 30 hrs) 'enough is enough', in went the epideral and a I finally relaxed, 9 hrs later she arrived. My 4yr old was the practically a twin in every way, the bad thing... no epideral this time. I had back surgery 6 months before getting pregnant and the scar tissue prevented the meds from working. ughhh... The joys of child birth! ;)

Hello All: Hey my first one I had no drugs, nothing I passed in and out from the pain. When I had the 2nd one I had a little bit but he was so big he broke my tail bone, so when I had the 3rd one I said bring it on all the drugs the doc would give me. When I had my last child it was a c-section so they did a epidural and I didn't even feel that, it was great until it wore off. I handle pain pretty well but I see no need to if I can help it.

Hey All! In response to the poll, I definitely couldn't have gotten through any of it without my husband by my side. He was so calm and reassuring and he made me feel safe. I totally went for the epidural though and it was GREAT!!! I remember being in so much pain for so long and then after the epidural it was gone in about 5 minutes. I didn't feel anything after that. I pushed my daughter out so quickly and my doctor wasn't there yet so they actually had me sit there with her head crowning for like 10 minutes waiting. I remember the nurses looking at me in amazement saying "That's one hell of an epidural!!" They finally had to pull in a doctor from the hallway to catch Nina because my body just starting pushing her out for me basically. I guess every birth is different.

Hey I love the fact of how calm and supportive your husband was. Mine was a complete wreck. He gripped my arm so tight I had bruise's with finger print areas. I love him dearly but sometimes its better not to have them by your side. He stayed out of the delivery room for our first three and came into the delivery room for the last baby which was a C-Section. Go figure!