About Doctors and Having a Baby

I go to see my doctor every week now. In the last two weeks, I have received several lectures about my decision to have a natural childbirth. Actually, the doctors remind me that I am trying to have "as natural a childbirth as possible" as though it is extremely unlikely that I will be able to have a natural childbirth.

Izzy and I really wanted to have a home birth or some alternative to a hospital birth, but at the end of the day, our insurance doesn't cover it (worth a whole rant of its own due to how much less expensive it is) and due to my ever-shrinking, sometime precarious employment situation, we decided it might not be best to pay for it out of pocket right now.

Anyway, after my doctor got done lecturing me about how I really needed to keep an open mind about having an epidural, I started puzzling over her reaction, and the medical profession's attitude toward childbirth in general. When I told her I planned to not have an epidural or any other pain medication, she made a horrified face and launched in to her lecture. What surprised me later was that I expected this. I knew that I would have to defend my decision, or at least smile and nod while she tried to talk me out of my decision, and that I wouldn't receive any encouragement or support for my choice to not take any medication. In fact, I don't know any doctors, medical students, and hardly any nurses who don't at least make disapproving faces at me when I tell them that I want to give birth without a string of medical interventions.

Why is this?

I understand that giving birth is quite painful, that there is always a possibility of complications, and that sometimes people need help, but people do this every day without drugs and all of the other medical procedures that usually accompany them and they are just fine. What I don't understand is why medical professionals are so unwilling to encourage me or at least accept my decision to try to avoid medical treatment that I may not need. Especially right after they tell me that I have had the most freakishly healthy pregnancy they've ever seen.

Somehow I don't think they ever try to talk someone out of planning to take pain medication before they have even experienced any pain or at least encourage them to see what they can do before they take the drugs, and somehow I think that I would receive more support for an elective C-section (major surgery) than for my attempt to have my baby with as few interventions as I can get away with.

Honestly, I've had an open mind about taking pain killers for most of my pregnancy and only recently decided it is something that I really don't want. The reason I always preferred the idea of having a home birth is because I feel confident that a midwife would respect any decisions or feelings I have about my care and work with me to try to help me, while the doctors and nurses at the hospital have been, and I expect they will continue to be, disapproving of my wishes.

At this point, I am more concerned about dealing with unsupportive doctors during labor than I am about the pain.

I am aware that I probably should say that I am going to try to have "as natural a childbirth as possible" instead of a natural childbirth not so much because I may choose otherwise or even need medical intervention, but because the institution involved with my care would prefer that I not have a natural childbirth in spite of my having the most healthy pregnancy my doctor has ever seen.