I understand that many hospitals pressure laboring women into unnecessary interventions, using fear tactics to convince them to alter their birth plans. That, in a word, is horrific. I'm not downplaying those experiences or how often they actually happen.

However, not every woman who has ever had an epidural did so because she was somehow coerced or forced or "talked into" one. I didn't plan on having an epidural, but after 10 hours of painful back labor and after being awake for over 24 hours, I knew that if I didn't get some rest and relief my birth was going to end with an emergency c-section. I didn't feel pressured to get a needle in my spine. I didn't feel like I had to have an epidural as the result of pitocin or some other medical intervention. In fact, I was asked more than once if this change in my birth plan was exactly what I wanted. Trust women to make their own choices and trust them when they say that the decision to get an epidural was, in fact, their decision.

Again, I'm definitely not saying that some women weren't pressured into certain interventions. However, hearing those horrific (and very sad) stories only to blindly apply them to every woman who has ever had an epidural, isn't helpful. Many women go into labor knowing full well, after careful research, that they're going to be asking for an epidural.

I can't tell you how many times I've been told that the reason I chose an epidural is because I wasn't informed and, as a result, didn't know the risks involved. False. I was very informed, and I can't tell you how hurtful it is for someone to automatically assume that I am naïve, just because my life choices don't mirror their own.

I knew that getting an epidural would probably prolong my labor and make pushing more difficult. I also knew that if I didn't get some rest, I wouldn't have had the strength to push at all. I knew that having an epidural increased my risk for a c-section, but I knew I was at risk for a c-section if I wouldn't physically be able to push my baby out of my body. So, in the end, I made an informed decision that I knew was best for myself and my baby, and for someone to automatically assume I didn't just because I didn't give birth in a tub is not only wrong, it's offensive.

I've also had some people tell me that I didn't really experience childbirth, or that I didn't get the "full" experience, because I chose to have an epidural. Yeah, that's a big ole false.

I went through ten hours of active, painful, drug-free labor at the hospital, on top of the few additional hours I labored at home. I walked the hospital hallways, I got my pregnant, laboring ass into a tub, and I used a birthing ball. I swayed back and forth and asked my partner to apply pressure to my lower back and I moaned and cried through contractions that were less than two minutes apart. Trust me, I experienced childbirth.

Which is why I don't feel cheated out of some "magical" experience, and why I definitely don't think I "cheated" in order to make childbirth "easier" for me. It wasn't easy, my friends.

Furthermore, I don't think I need to suffer in order to prove that I can "handle" childbirth. Women shouldn't be made to suffer, period; especially in the name of motherhood. These wonderful medical interventions exist for a reason, and my epidural helped me experience the childbirth I wanted.

This was by far the most hurtful thing anyone has ever said to me when I shared my birthing experience, and it was said by a friend which made it infinitely more hurtful. I had a hard time bonding with my son directly after he was born, thanks to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), postpartum depression and the loss of a twin when I was 19 weeks pregnant. I was deathly afraid that my son was going to die (in fact, I was almost sure of it) so I was terrified to bond with him, only to inevitably experience the heartbreak of losing him.

A friend equated my inability to bond with my son with my choice to get an epidural. I was devastated. There are thousands upon thousands of women who have epidurals, and feel an instant connection with their child. They are able to breastfeed right away; they're able to feel that instantaneous and ever-lasting love; they're able to do what I wasn't capable of doing, even though I had the same epidural they did. An epidural in no way keeps you from bonding with your child. Nope. That's not a thing.

So many women attribute their epidural to the reason why they were able to have the labor and delivery experience they were hoping to have, and I'm one of them. If it wasn't for the relief and the rest that my epidural afforded me, there would have been no way I would have found the physical and mental strength to push. My epidural gave me the ability to fall asleep for a few essential hours so that, when it came time to bring my son into the world, I had the power to do so.

Nope. Like, not even a little bit. If I could go back and do it all over again, I probably would have asked for that damn epidural earlier. Going through 10 hours of back labor was the most unnecessary, and something I don't plan on ever doing again.

I can't stand the term "natural birth" to begin with. Honestly, unless you gave birth to a toaster oven or an alien, you had a natural birth. It doesn't matter if you were in the woods somewhere, in your own home, in a hospital with an epidural in your back or on a surgical table and having a doctor cut your baby from your body; your birth was natural. You're a human and you're producing another human. Natural.

So, please, all of us mothers who chose to have an epidural would really love to never hear that we didn't have a "natural birth," ever again. If you want to say we didn't have a drug-free birth, have it it. But natural? Yeah, our babies were birthed naturally.