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I am delivering in a few weeks and am going to go in with an open mind and see how things go. But after my birthing class this week it really got me hoping I could maybe pull off a natural labor. Mostly, I am just worried about the risks/complications of an epidural.

I'm only hoping to go med free, so take my answer with a grain of salt. But I want to for a variety of reasons. My research suggests that it's probably best for baby. I want to be able to feel things, especially how to push best. I worry about the "cascade of interventions." I'm afraid of relying on an epidural and it not working. I want to be able to move around during labor. I don't like needles. And regarding other meds than just the epidural, I respond very badly to narcotic painkillers, so much so that they're not even an option. I also want to avoid pitocin, based on my past experience with it, it sucks. I will consider nitrous, but the detached/dizzy feeling probably won't be what I'm looking for.

Part of all that is having had a traumatic previous experience, with pitocin, narcotic painkillers, and not being able to move around (due to my reaction to the painkillers, though, not an epidural). But I wanted a med-free birth even before that. Really hoping this LO's birth can give me the positive birth experience I wanted, to help counter the terrible previous one.

I did it and I want to do it again. I didn't want the complications of pitocin, and I react so strongly to things like caffeine that I was worried about an epidural and what it would do to the baby. I believe each woman deserves her birth how she's comfortable and I was not comfortable with those interventions. I'd like to labor in a tub this time.

We wanted a home birth, so med free was the only option. I believed that I could prepare myself to do it without medication. I read a lot, took classes, and practiced mindfulness during my pregnancy. My partner was vital.

I also saw my mom have my sister, med free, and it inspired me.

All of that said, if I had to transfer for any reason, I wouldn't have been against an epi or pitocin if my midwives thought it would help my achieve a safe delivery of my baby.

Because I was the person that showed up at the hospital at 8 cm and pushing a short time later...I wanted that epidural (they tried and it failed) and was so not prepared for the idea of feeling anything!

That being said, I was very surprised by how little pain there was until the very end. Part of that might have been how crazy it all was, but then it was immediately over and I was up walking around. I might actually opt to go natural if there's a next time.

A few reasons. Primarily I was afraid of the cascade of interventions, though I think often they are overhyped. I was afraid that an epidural would slow down labor. I also really wanted to be able to get up and move around and use the tub. And I was afraid of not being able to feel how to push.

Mainly, I figured our bodies are meant to do this, so I wanted to let nature do its thig as much as possible.

However I also went in hoping for med free but being open to an epi if the midwives thought it would help labor move along. So I wasn't hell bent against it, and did actually finally ask for one, before finding out I was in transition.

I had a wonderful labor and delivery and recovery experience and hope to go med free again.

I had an induction with LO 1 so it wasn't completely med free but I did it without pain relief. I had an amazing recovery and was able to get up and shower after doing skin to skin etc which was awesome as I got to feel human again after hours in labor.
For LO2 I'm hoping to not need to be induced and I'm not allowed an epidural so it's not even an option (wasn't allowed with LO1 either)

Oh- I should also add, the primary thing that kept me from asking for one during labor was that the thought of actually getting one-- sitting still like that, having the needle inserted-- was scarier and seemed worse than the pain of labor itself. Which, honestly, makes me thing my labor was a lot less painful than many.

My aim was to go med-free for my first birth but my labour stalled out after eighteen or so hours so an epi, pitocin, episiotomy and ventouse were the right choices at the time (it still took another twelve hours to get Miss A out!). This go around I'd like to go med-free because although my recovery was as good as it could have been, being restricted to the bed for the first 24 hours made everything that much more difficult.

I just knew that's what I wanted. I am not sure why my reasons were, other than I trusted my body could do it naturally and I had read that med free births generally have a smoother recovery. Cant wait to do it that way again! It was AMAZING.

My mom had both me and my brother naturally, so I always thought of it as normal. Especially since she was so open about it. I still remember being 10 or so and visiting the natural childbirth center where I was born to meet her midwife.
Plus like @avivoca said I wanted to prove I could do it. Pretty much every who I told before hand said I didn't know what I was doing and I couldn't handle it, and I'm so happy I proved them wrong.

And like others mentioned, the recovery after was really easy.

I went med-free because I knew I couldn't get an epidural and the drugs you get through your IV really weren't that helpful with Xander, so I figured I'd skip them and then get to say I went med free!

I intended to with my first but after 37 long hours of not sleeping or eating, my body was just too exhausted to continue so I ended up getting the epidural. Baby ended up being stuck and I needed a C-section so that also sucked but I almost knew deep down that my labour was taking so long because it wasn't going to happen naturally.

Hoping for a med free vbac with this one!

My Mom went med-free with 4/5 of her kids, and 3/5 were at home. I don't think that I ever thought I would do anything but a med free birth with a midwife. I just knew that it was what my body was made to do and the pain would be worth it. We took a really intense birth class to make sure that we were well prepared.

I guess I never answers WHY I tried to (and hope to) go med free. I kind of wanted to see what my body was capable of. It was designed for this, so I figured what the hell. There were also other reasons like being able to move freely and position myself however it felt right to birth, to avoid tearing, not wanting to stall my labour (haha, as if it could stall more), I didn't want to possibly affect baby's responses and instincts when he was born and I wanted to be able to BF as soon as possible too.

I had always wondered if I would be able to do a med free birth. For DD1 I had an epidural at 7cm but with DD2 labor progressed quickly so by the time I was able to get an epi I was so far along I thought I might as well go for it since I had gotten that far (9cm). After birth I was up walking in 2 hours and the burst of hormones after made me feel like I was a superhero and I could do anything! I don't think there will be a #3 but if there was I would probably go for it again. The pain was bad but much more manageable than I thought it would be particularly since I never fought it when it came.