Saturday, August 6, 2011

When Birth Plans Go Astray

Have you ever seen or written a birth plan with words like "I want to have a natural birth", "Keep the lights low" "I want to be free to change positions" "I don't want to use pitocen"....etc.  Having a birth "goal' is a great start - I think it matters that you have some vision of  your ideal birth.

But have you also written a birth plan and in the end...none of it happened.  Perhaps you felt like it was a waste of time.  You were probably also very disappointed and disillusioned with birth.  Does this mean we should never try to make plans?

Although we can't "plan" birth, we can have some control over certain parts of it.  You have some control over your care provider, you have some control over the support people in the room.  You have some control over the lighting, the music you play, even the clothes you wear. You have some control over positions you try.  You have some control over when you head to the hospital, over the thoughts you are focusing on in labor.

So start with a vision of the birth you would like to have - and then make sure you have great support. And ultimately realize that the baby has the largest vote in the process.  Hopefully some of your vision will be realized - and hopefully you'll leave your birth with a great memory, even if it doesn't exactly match your original "plan".

1 comment:

  1. This is some of the best advice you gave me. When I was pregnant and was looking at birth plans on-line, it was so overwhelming and seemed doomed to fail because you can't plan for every single moment of a birth. I was glad I had general ideas and adapted as needed.

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