Epidural, Schmepidural
By Danell Swim
February 25, 2008
To start off the night, each mom, some with infants and toddlers in tow, shares her favorite part of pregnancy. “Just growing life I think is exciting,” says Copeland, 38, a mother of three. “Just knowing there’s new potential in the world, inside me.”
“The best thing about being pregnant is looking forward to having the baby,” says Carina Young, 27, who was due on Feb. 22.
“I felt like my baby was really, really safe,” said Emily Roper, 25, a mother of two. “When I’m pregnant, I just feel like my baby is doing its thing.”
The conversation floats from cloth diapers to fatigue and what to wear at different stages of pregnancy. “I wanted to get a shirt that said ‘epidural, schmepidural’,” says Kristin Yoder Kauffman, 30, who’s first child, Phoebe, was born in November.
“But, I was afraid that was a little precocious, what if I needed one?” she added, laughing.
Like a growing number of mothers in the Valley, many of these women are advocates of “low-tech” births, wanting to limit the use of technology and be in charge of their own birthing process as much as possible. Some choose to do so by working with a midwife, rather than an obstetrician. Others have a doula, a non-medically trained woman who supports the mother during birth, in the hospital room during delivery.
“A lot more women are realizing they have choices,” said Copeland, whose own children, ages 13, 11 and 7, were born at home.
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