How painful is birth without an epidural?

Some people describe the feeling as being like intense period cramps, others say it feels like a tightening or pounding feeling in your uterus or across your belly, others describe the feeling as being like very intense muscle cramps, while still other people describe contractions as being like the sort of wrenching.

The term “natural birth” is usually used to describe a vaginal delivery performed without medication. It’s also sometimes used to distinguish between a vaginal delivery and a cesarean delivery.

Benefits
Unmedicated births have increased in popularity due to concerns that epidurals can interfere with natural body responses to labor and delivery. Ashley Shea, a birth doula, yoga teacher, student midwife, and founder of Organic Birth, has also witnessed this trend.

“Women want to be able to move around untethered to machines, they want to stay home as long as possible before heading to the hospital, they don’t want to be disturbed or excessively monitored, or have too many cervical checks (if at all), and they want to have immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact with their newborn and wait until the cord stops pulsating to clamp and cut the cord,” said Shea.

As she pointed out, “If you found out you could have a baby in a warm, deep pool of water compared to flat on your back with people yelling at you to push, what would you choose?”

And in case you didn’t already know, mothers do have the right to elect unmedicated births at hospitals.
Risks

There are a few serious risks associated with unmedicated births. Risks often arise if there is a medical problem with the mother or if an issue prevents the baby from naturally moving through the birth canal.

Other concerns surrounding a vaginal birth include:

tears in the perineum (area behind the vaginal wall)
increased pain
hemorrhoids
bowel issues
urinary incontinence
psychological trauma