How were you birthed?

Back when I was born (mid 1940's), mothers were "put under" for childbirth and kept in hospital afterwards for approximately a week. So the drugs administered were not just pain killers.

For mothers with MS, I'd be interested to see a poll of the other side of this question, our experiences of giving birth. My husband is quite convinced that the trauma of an epidural injection is a plausible explanation for my developing MS four years later.

Now, ask how I gave birth....
probably not relevant as my MS dx followed so many years later (but why did I go blind for 24 hours when I was 11?).
Anyhow - four natural childbirths - no drugs.

The story goes that my Mom went into labor and went to the hospital to have me but while waiting she overheard two nurses talking and one said that there were no beds available... One of the nurses then gave my Mom a shot of some kind and told her that she wasn't in labor yet and sent her home. I was born three days later... I don't know if there is any type of a shot that they can give to halt/postpone labor...

Hmmm. Are you trying to make some connection between manner of birth and developing MS? Post-traumatic-birth disorder? I was breast fed, too. Gosh. I wonder what influence THAT had.

Also, many of us "get better" while we are pregnant. Everyone was kind of surprised I felt so great during both of my pregnancies! So was I, didn't know I had MS back then, and it explains a lot. There are times I'd like to be pregnant again, just so I can feel good!

My mother could not take drugs, but the hospital screwed up and gave her an epidural which stopped labor. They had to remove me with the "salad spoons." It made my head an irreagular shape, and my entire head was bruised really bad. My parents had to massage my head for months afterward because my skull was still soft and out of it's normal shape-- the sutures between the cranial bones don't fuse together completely until about age 2 - 3.

To the woman writing about her pregnancies . . . there's (2) reasons why you felt better. (1) The hormones that regulate your immune system so that it doesn't attack the fetus were abundant--which would downregulate the immune cells that attack the brain. (2) Other hormones released during pregnancy are natural anti-inflammatory. This would help in diminishing the frequency and severity of your usual symptoms . . . almost like methylprednisolone for an acute exacerbation.

I was the last of 8 kids non induced vaginal with drug delivery. Wasn't dx until i was around 36years old. But now i look back i can actually remember having has symptoms for years. Way back into my young year of early teen years and twenties! No one could ever give me any reason for why i had symptoms always just nervous or always something else. Not until i was older and become a nurse did i get an actual dx.

I was born by natural childbirth and had perfect health all of my life. I rarely had even a cold. When I graduated from 8th grade, I recieved the award for perfect attendance. I gave birth to two sons also by natuaral childbirth as I thought it safest for my children and myself. I was leary of any injections in the spine. My life came to a crashing change when I was convinced by a relentless gyecologist to undergo a hysterectomy. It was absolutely barbaric. I awoke to something wrong with my legs, feet and the pudenal nerve. The recovery room nurse told me I had been oversedated and stopped breathing. I had vertigo for one week. I began to consult nuerologists when problems persisted.The nuerologists determined I had MS from the trauma of the hysterectomy. At Hopkins, they thought the overdose and in New York said it was the hormonal shock. I think the injury to the plexus of nerves in the pelvis was also a factor. Ladies, beware of this operation.

my mother said my birth was normal but she had a few miscarriages after her first 3 children ( my siblings) and that the doctor gave her a shot of DES mom had no idea what that was just that the doctor said, " this will cement the baby" so you shouldnt misscarry again. That DES was nasty stuff who knew back then.

I'm convinced my MS came about either as of the post-partum hormones going crazy in my body or the sheer stress of being a new mom, added to other severe stressors that were going on in my life at that time.

My first MS symptoms showed up 4 weeks post-partum, vaginal delivery with epidural. It was Bells Palsy (numbness on one side of my face) and went away within days. My right arm went numb when my son was 1 year old. I was diagnosed 6 months later. Also, I had a mild case of mononucleosis when I was 16 years old, and I've read some research suggesting a link between that virus as a teenager and having MS later in life.

I was born naturally but my mother had poison ivy in that area and had been using medication for it. It was not drugs for labor.

I have had 3 c-sections. I tried to have a natural birth with no medications the first time. Unfortunately, a small pelvic bone prevented this after three days of labor.

I believe that I ignored my symptoms for a long time because I did not want something to be wrong with me. I wanted to be the strong, healthy woman in my family.

I had both of my children vaginally. My daughter with IV painkillers, and my son with no meds at all. My MS was a VERY sudden onset. When my son was 5 months old, I woke up and the ball of my left foot was completely numb. By the end of the next day, I thought I had a stroke. The numbness had spread to the entire left side of my body and my mouth was drooping on that side. I was tentatively diagnosed within 2 weeks, and positively diagnosed in 4 months. The doctors have said that the birth of my son was a direct connection to why my MS showed up when it did.

I am a female, fraternal twin. My twin brother has no signs of any demyelinating diseases. Thank God ! He has always been relatively healthy, whereas I have always been kinda "sickly" - catching all the colds, viruses, etc., that went around. I wonder if any other twin, diagnosed with MS or any other demyelinating diseases, have had this situtation.

A country doctor told Mother, when she took us in for a check-up @ age 2, that I would always been sickly, and he gave me gamma-globulin shots to help me. Hmmmm....

"I think, therefore I am. " Descartes

Drugs for pain were part of the delivery for most babies. My mother claims all deliveries required new moms staying down for a month with little getting up and walking around- that was in the middle 1940's. My Grandmother came to stay for that month to do the wash, housework and cooking.

Hi,
I think I was born naturaly. I say think as I have never heard differently. Although I was the youngest of 10 children and born at home in 1940 we have never discussed this within the family. Unfortunately my mother died when I was only 5 years old sadly I was never able to discuss this with her.
Tony

there was a miscarriage before me, & I was supposed to be natural but was breach. so my mom was put out & I know no olher details.

Interesting poll. I would like to see the additon of conditions/health issues requiring treatment at birth - I was born with Thrush (yeast infection in the mouth) and was treated for this.

i have no idea how i was born - my mom passed away last year and my dad died 25 years ago. i was born in 1951 so i am guessing my mom was "out of it." i suffered a cerebral anneurysm when i was 22, so my girls were born with forceps, vaginally. upon the birth of my second and last child, i began experiencing problems, which lead me to a diagnosis of ms.

I was born via natural childbirth. However, when my mother wanted to breast feed, the doctor asked her "Do you want to kill your baby". Therefore I was bottle fed.

I was delivered by non-natural methods, in the mid-forties. Mother was in the hospital for 6 days. During that time she took drugs while she was breast feeding me. She took DES, while she was pregnant with me because she had a miscarriage the year before she was pregnant with me. Growing up, I had Chicken Pox five times, and I find that extremely odd. I also had mono during my high school senior year. I missed 8 weeks of school, but I was allowed to graduate without taking exams! Yea! Later, when I was in my 30's, I got mono again. I am from Texas, and got lots of sunlight during my life, as I was a lifeguard during the summers.

I was born by natural child birth. My mother was in the hospital, but when the time came no one was around. My sxs started when I was a teen. Did not come full swing until in my 50s. Growing up I was always told something else. So after teens just put it as normal for things to feel wrong.

I was VERY anemic as a small child (about 1958 - 1960) and my parents had to take me to the pediatrician for iron shots. The doctors told them this caused problems with my teeth, but, I wonder if there was any relation to that and my later development of MS? Also, a girl who lived 3 houses from me (born a month after me) developed MS also. She had a "problem with her blood" at birth, and they completely replaced her blood... Just thoughts...

I thought MS was not genetic , My sister who has a different father has it and now they have diagnosed my son 32yrs old with it . what is the thought on this

When I was born my mother went into ecalmpsia, I was C sectioned and had enchephalitis that had to be treated by a neurologist.
Thus my begining was prohpetic with neurology since the start.

Hi, I believe that MS is a multifactoral disease, which may be the result of a virus,inflammation/infection, injury to the brain and spinal chord or genetics/mitochondrial disease. It involves the white and grey matter. Guillain-Barre syndrome is also a demyelinating disease, So it is important to keep an open mind.

I was born very fast. Forceps, Dr. had a party to go to. Less than 3 hours and I was born. I can feel dents on the side of my head. Not sure if that is from forceps or not.
It is where I get strong migraines though.