"Don't be a hero!"

This is probably the most important advice I have gotten so far in my pregnancy. Since I am in my 8th month now, Jaime and I took our childbirth classes this month. While I learned a lot, it also freaked me out as we saw many explicit videos of late stage labor without epidural and very visual child birth. Let's just say I didn't walk away feeling too settled. The potential for real pain was quite daunting.

I was also conflicted. My mom had me without any epidural and actually at the time in China, no relatives were allowed in the labor and delivery room. She basically did it all alone. Yikes. can't even imagine that!

Also, I thought since this is a natural part of being a woman, maybe I should try the labor first before deciding on whether to use epidural. of course, on the other hand, I am fairly scared of the pain I saw women experienced on these videos.

Well, luckily I spoke to some friends who already had babies and was set straight right away. One friend's story especially helped. She has two kids now, one 3 years old and one six months old. She had the epidural early with her first, so she felt relatively little discomfort. With her second, she thought since she didn't experience much in her first and this is her last, maybe she should feel the labor a bit and see how far she can handle before going for the epidural.

Well, what do you think happened? Let's just say she highly does not recommend that. She ended up not getting her epidural until well into active labor and since she was deciding late, she had to wait longer for the epidural doctor to administer the procedure since there was a line now for the medicine. So even more pain than she bargained for.

So the morale of her story - "Don't be a hero!" You don't get any points for feeling more pain. The goal is healthy mom and healthy baby anyway you can do it!

I have my decision...
p.s: Apparently getting an Epidural does not guarantee pain free. I will feel pressure and if the medicine didn't cover all the necessary nerves, I will still feel pain in some areas. Typically it's 15% ineffective. Pretty high probability still... yikes...

- Lei