@MuchGreater: Your point of view is sadly somewhat a common one for gals who haven’t had a baby yet… “IF it gets TOO BAD then I’ll just ask for a C-Section”.
Lol, unfortunately that is a pipe dream… it doesn’t work that way. A thought that is well shall we say a naive one.
C-Sections are very serious business… they are indeed a major operation… with ALL the possible consequences that go along with that (including the possibility of death) so Drs don’t just do them on a whim.
No matter how bad your pain is, you aren’t going to get to ask for a C-Section.
What you can ask for is a epidural (also has some potential risks / side effects)… or if you’ve already had that, then maybe a TOP UP… but alas no guarantees there either… it all comes down to timing and where you are at in the delivery process
So ya, there certainly is a chance that you are not going to have a pain-free delivery, which I think here is your biggest worry / fear. A common one for first-timers.
Although, it can be hell at the time… this whole giving birth thing… in the end you get over it once you have that babe in your arms… and soon after it is pretty much forgotten (which is WHY the human race continues to have babies… IF it was truly horrible, we’d all only ever have one… and women would probably NEVER have sex again, like the many who MAKE THOSE THREATS to their husbands in the Delivery Room). Lol
C-Sections are performed because there is a potential life-or-death / serious situation at hand… usually with the baby.
In my case, with my first I had a C-Section because I had been in labour for over 12 Hours, and the baby was now beginning to rip the placenta away from the wall of the uterus. So we were both moving into dangerous territory.
The good news is I had no pain the entire 12 hours… because I knew how things were supposed to unfold, and what my options were along the way thru the whole process.
So if you plan to have kids, you’ll want to go to Prenatal Classes, and pay atttention. You can learn a lot in them in regards to what is what (Pregnancy – Delivery – Newborns) and also find out what OPTIONS are availalbe to you and when in the Delivery Process… cause if you miss the window for drugs… then you’ll be sh** out of luck, and have to go thru it all au natural !!