No Epidural and No Whining, with Celeste & Claudiu Bancos

We’ve reached the last story for this year’s “Birth Stories” for the summer series! Today’s story has a special twist, as we get to hear both parent’s version of it. Aside from healthy mom and healthy baby, Celeste Bancos’ other birth goals were of to avoid getting an epidural, and to not whine.. She, and her husband Claudiu are here to share how she achieved that. Check it out!

What we talked about:

• Making sure to be well rested for when labor starts
• Taking the right way to the hospital (this time)
• Knowing you can ask for things
• Distracting the thinking brain with the proper book
• Going deeper, finding your rhythm
• Having a crisis of confidence with a sense of despair
• Becoming “louder and happier, at the same time”
• Working through not pushing when you want to but it’s not time
• Figuring out your own way of pushing (and ignoring unhelpful nurses)
• The narrating father, and the amazing reality of seeing and holding your baby
• Meeting her goals of not whining and not getting an epidural
• Take aways, from a dad’s perspective

Resources mentioned by Celeste and Claudiu*:

• NaturalBreastfeeding.com
• The Birth Partner’s Ultimate Labor Support Toolkit
• All Creatures Great and Small, by James Herriot
• Emergency Childbirth: A Manual, by Gregory White (This book is out of print, so the available copies are rare and pricey. There is a free .pdf download here)

Related Birthful episodes:

• Your Birth Hormones, with Dr. Sarah Buckley
• Rethinking the Pushing Stage, with Whapio

All photos used with permission, courtesy of Celeste Bancos

Wearing his mom’s Santa hat from when she was a baby!

Title music: “Vibe Ace” by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive / CC BY (edited for length).

Sponsorship music: “Air Hockey Saloon” by Chris Zabriskie, from the Free Music Archive / CC BY (edited for length).