I just had my baby on October 23rd, I didn’t have any pain medication because I get anxiety from medicine, and I did get an epidural, because I was afraid if feeling myself tear, but it failed and didn’t work at all. I do have a high pain tolerance, so the contractions didn’t bother me too much till they where at the absolute worse they get to, which was about the last 1-2 hours of labor. I puked 3 times because the pain made me feel so nauseous. But it’s not a sharp pain, it’s a aching pain, and honestly isn’t that bad to deal with, just focusing on breathing when they happen really helps. And when you begin pushing, it’s such a big relief from the contraction pain that you’ll never want to stop pushing lmao. And then when the baby comes out, you’re so in the moment that you barely even feel yourself tearing, if you even do tear. Honestly I didn’t feel any pain after the pushing until they started stitching me up. And my tears where two 2nd degree tears 👀 I believe if you go into it all with a strong mentality about taking the pain and dealing through it, you’ll be completely fine

I had 2 births with no epidural. and I'm planning another when when I deliver this baby. I will never get an epidural unless i needed surgery!

I'm going to try to go all natural too 🤞🏻😬. Good luck mama!

Look into water birth and see if it's an option that interests you. I did it with my second and plan on doing it again with this baby. It was great because with each contraction you can rock back and forth in the water and tge warmth was soothing. I had an epidural with my first and either the placement in my spine was slightly off or the amount I got when I pushed the button was too much because I did have some nerve damage in my knee for a few years and there is still a small spot that I can't feel. Not trying to scare anybody or say anything bad about epidurals, that was just my personal experience. If I couldn't do the water birth, I wouldn't completely rule out getting an epidural, but depends on how things go. Like if I progress super fast, may as well go natural and just be done. I found the recovery much easier without the epidural and you can get up and walk around after. And I tore with my second, lol, so to say that it was easier vs the first time where I didn't, I feel like that says quite a bit. In all honesty, it burns like hell while the baby is crowning/you push the head out, then the rest is like a cake walk because the hard part is over. Sorry for the novel! lol

I just had my first at home with no medication...I highly recommend finding a Bradley class! Helped me a ton with relaxation and my husband with massage/rebozo. Also my midwives were great with essential oils!