The terms natural and normal birth often cause confusion as to what they actually mean

The terms natural and normal birth often cause confusion as to what they actually mean. They also mean different things to different people.

Some people will say they have had a natural birth if they have given birth vaginally, regardless of whether or not they have had interventions or medical analgesia.

Some argue that caesarean birth shouldnt be excluded when talking about 'normal birth' as it is extremely common and in some places could be considered to be normal.

The problem with this though is that we need to have an idea of what birth should normally look like in the physiological sense, so that we can identify when things deviate from the norm.

Because of this, I feel there should be more classifications of birth types to lessen confusion:

1. Natural birth - spontaneous vaginal birth that occurs without any intervention or medical analgesia

2. Normal physiological birth - labour begins spontaneously and the baby is born without assistance. There may be some use of medical analgesia such as entonox or opioids. No other interventions are given. A natural birth is also a physiological birth.

3. Vaginal birth - labour starts spontaneously or via induction and the baby is born vaginally. Interventions such as artificial rupture of membranes, epidural, continuous fetal monitoring, episiotomy, oxytocin drip may occur.

4. Assisted vaginal birth - Baby is born vaginally with the help of forceps or suction cup. Labour starts spontaneously or is induced.

5. Caesarean or belly birth - baby is born abdominally via surgery. Either planned or after an induced or spontaneous labour.

I was keen to get in on a discussion that @kemibirthjoyjohnson and @sheena_byrom were having the other day about physiological birth but for some reason couldn't connect to clubhouse!

By fully understanding physiological birth and the normal parameters of such, we are then able to ensure that interventions are offered when they are truly needed. By lumping all births as 'normal birth' this becomes difficult.

Whatever type of birth you have had, it's a true birthing experience, unique to just you.