Well Intentioned Birth Plans

I had good intentions all 3 times that I gave birth. I started out with my first possibly wanting an all natural drug-free birth and chickened out in the end. I had an intrathecal (a type of spinal) and decided to NEVER go that route again because of the side effects (vomiting).

With my 2nd birth I had taken the Bradley Method childbirth classes. I was ready to go the long haul with no drugs. Ahem, my daughter ended up being a complete breech and I had to have a cesarean. So out the window went all my good intentions with birth number 2.

The third time around I spent all the entire pregnancy gearing up for a natural drug free birth only to be side-tracked by pre-term labor at 30 weeks. At that point all my thoughts went from thinking "I can do this with no drugs" to "please baby, just stay in a few more days... weeks... months." Seven solid weeks of bed rest totally wrecked my focus and all I could do was live one day to the next hoping that my daughter would stay in me for one more day...one more day.

Finally, at 37 weeks and 1 day - full term (yay!) I went into full fledge labor. My husband and I were in transit to the hospital 45 miles away and half way there I had a painful contraction. Then another. I was so excited to have made it to full term and yet taken aback by the pain that I decided there in the van that I wanted an epidural. I even told the admissions man that I wanted an epidural the minute I walked up to his desk!

So, I had an epidural. I had made it to 8 cm with no drugs and an hour and a half later I delivered my beautiful daughter in just 7 pushes. It was the fastest and easiest delivery I had ever experienced and a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) at that. All in all I suppose I could have successfully had an all natural drug-free birth if I had held out. I think I could have gotten through it okay.

But I did give in and had an epidural. My daughter and I are none the worse for it. I fully believe that no matter what we "plan" for the birth of our babies - plans don't always go the way we "planned" them. Sometimes it's okay to change our minds mid-stream - it's our choice and it's perfectly okay.

Go with the flow - make your plans - practice them and then when the big day arrives, YOU do what YOU feel is the right thing at the time to do. And don't beat yourself over your head if the birth of your baby ends up being different from what you planned.