I feel like no one wants to say vaginal in normal conversation, so I hear 'natural', 'traditional'... But to me, natural implies either med/intervention free, or that a c-section is 'unnatural'. So I usually say vaginal and make people uncomfortable 
Whatever, we all know what we are really talking about!
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People always comment on my "natural" deliveries, but I consider "natural" to be drug-free, which my deliveries were not! I hate saying "vaginal" but I always end up saying that.
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I say "regular" or "c-section" though I see how that could be offensive, too.
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I don't know that this really comes up much in conversation for me! I'd probably just say either that I had a vaginal birth or that I didn't have a c-section, depending on how the question was posed!
I try not to say "I had a natural birth" because I don't want to imply another's birth WASN'T natural, just because it wasn't exactly like mine!
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It depends on the group/person I am discussing it with.
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I find that people go, "oh did you have a c-section?" and i say "no" and then they know that this baby came out my VAGINA. Most women will say the word vaginally, though. I dunno, it's...a vagina. Period. Mostly it came up at the gym.
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I say vaginal!
Natural makes me think med free, too. I did have a med free birth, but it still makes me feel weird not saying vaginal. -
@Adira: Exactly-- I don't want to imply anyone else's was less natural than mine.
@MrsTiz: That's right, I do say regular sometimes. Or I'll just say, No C-section.
It came up a few times when people asked how mine was, and after my work friend had her baby other coworkers would ask if she had a natural birth. I didn't want to get into, well, she needed a little pitocin and had an epidural... so I would say, yeah, no c-section.
I just think it's funny that we are talking about a birth but can't say vagina
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@looch: Ditto - depends on who I am talking with.
If I'm talking about someone elses birth, I either say vaginal or traditional. I had a med-free birth (I don't like the term 'natural' for reasons stated by others - all births are natural!) so if I'm talking about myself I usually use that term, and it implies vaginal delivery. -
I don't call it anything but I differentiate the two by saying C section if that's what it is, otherwise it's just birth.
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People don't really ask me this question, but if they ask if I had a natural delivery I say yes.
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Hmm... I guess I specify c-section, otherwise I just say birth.
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I usually say normal birth. To me, a natural birth is med free, and a c-section is generally performed when things are not occurring "normally". Therefore a standard vaginal delivery is what I call a normal birth.
Disclaimer: not trying to say a non-vaginal birth is wrong, of course it isn't, but it's not the usual way a baby is meant to be born if everything is proceeding normally.
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I don't know that I've ever had to specify... I think if someone directly asked me how I gave birth, I would say 'I got an epidural and only had to push for XX amount of time.' So, that would cover vaginal/c-section
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Vaginal = vaginal
Med-free = natural
Cesarsan = cesarean@Ree723: Every governing obstetric body (worldwide) actually has a defined "normal" birth so I don't think the term used for a smooth vaginal delivery is offensive, that's actually what a "normal" birth is by definition.
ETA: FWIW I think it's dangerous for all of as a whole when having major surgery begins having an assumed definition as "normal" or "natural" because one doesn't want to offend or because one gets offended. It minimizes it's risks and causes them to become more accepted as commonplace. Bad for all of us when that happens
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Depends on who I'm talking to. I work in medicine so... some people are comfortable asking specifically. I think usually people say "did you have a c/s" and I'll say no.
Now that I think about it I probably say "I was induced for pre-e" and people assume I delivered vaginally.
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I say vaginal for my birth because LO came out vaginally but I had an epidural.
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yeah it depends who I am taking to, I usually say natural birth or vaginal birth. The term natural doesnt bother me
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I guess I don't know why a vaginal birth can't be refered to as natural even if pain medications where used.
I consider it a natural birth. I birthed the way my body was intended to birth a child. To me, that is natural. Not sure why it matters if pain meds where used.
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When I want to convey that i delivered without pitocin or without an epidural, i say med-free or intervention-free.
Natural to me is vaginal, that can include meds or not.
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I try to say vaginal but sometimes it comes out as "NORMAL" which I then correct by saying "instead of a c-section" or something like that. I just don't like saying the V-word in front of some people, haha! But I agree, there's no other proper word to describe it!
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"I had a baby." People in real life don't normally ask how.
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i call it a vaginal birth. as someone who didn't have a 'natural' birth, i try not to call it that, because it can have a little sting to it the way some people say it(ex. when people ask if i had a 'natural' birth, and i say no, i had a csection, they get all sad for me and say 'oh, i'm so sorry'. that i don't particularly care for). and i really don't have many people ask if i had a csection or a vaginal birth. a lot of people didn't even know i had one with my first, until i said the 2nd was scheduled, because of the first.
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I say vaginal. That's what it is!!! I don't mind making people uncomfortable though. Lol.
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@mediagirl: Exactly. In my experience, most real people don't ask how the baby exited my body.
I'm pretty sure I've never had to tell someone. If they asked, I'd say vaginal though. I don't have a problem saying vagina. Vagina.
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To clarify, not that it matters, but I didn't mean only describing your own birth. Just a birth where baby exits via vagina in general. Though I did have a surprising number of people ask about mine.
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@mediagirl: Lol, +1. Obviously, those close to me know more details about my birth experience, but people don't usually tend to grill me about how my baby exited my body.
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I think it depends who I'm talking with. Most people will ask "Oh, did you have a c-section?" as opposed to jumping right in and saying "Oh, was it VAGINAL?"
I think I've used "natural" birth in relation to other people, but I have no hesitation clarifying 'vaginal' in relation to myself.
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@Foodnerd81: I didn't mean to swerve off-course there!
I think saying vagina and making people uncomfortable is fun, though. This is especially true when they're people who really shouldn't be asking in the first place!!I also think the online community is a lot more sensitive about terms like vaginal and normal and traditional while most people in my life would just associate those words with a vaginal birth, without having to say the word.
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I just say painful.
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Generally, I just say birth. I'm not going to tell my (male) boss or coworkers the details.
ETA one of DH's friends was asking about the birth (why? who knows) and DH said "natural". Although DS was born vaginally, there was nothing natural about it! (pre-e, induction, epidural, posterior, vacuum, giant episiotomy).
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I say vaginal medicated birth.
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I say vaginal birth.
I don't consider a c-section to be natural, and neither would any of my friends or sisters who have had one. But that doesn't mean I consider their birth experience to be "less than" in any way.
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The doctors over here call a vaginal birth a "normal" delivery. I was asked over and over again in the weeks following DD's birth if Id had a normal delivery! I would laugh (bitterly!) because the fact she exited through my vagina was the only "normal" bit about my birth experience! I always say "if you mean vaginal, yes".
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Just vaginal birth.
I don't feel the need to qualify it or tell people unneeded information about my vagina. She was born and she came out of my vagina. Nuff said.
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i have to wonder why some people would choose to ask "did you have a c section" because they are uncomfortable with the word "vaginal"....when they could simply not ask at all! I don't think i ever made it a habit to ask people what part of their body their baby came out, as curious as i may be.
In my mind i refer to it as vaginal birth as i think of natural as med-free. Now i wonder if it possible to have a natural c-section
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I just say natural! I think people generally just want to know if the baby came out of your vagina or not. But I don't want to say vagina to just anybody. People I know don't care about the drugs.
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@californiadreams: Omgosh that reminds me of the lady in Mexico that was far from the city so she performed a cesarean on herself b/c she just knew something wasn't right. They both survived but OMG I couldn't imagine!
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@californiadreams: @runsyellowlites: I know someone who had failed anesthesia during her c-section. She started feeling it right as they started cutting and there was nothing that could really be done. She felt everything.
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Natural to me implies no meds, traditional to me is a vaginial, so I usually say traditional or say, did you have to have a c-section?
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