Ever since the beginning of my pregnancy I've been hearing and reading about this ridiculous thing that every pregnant woman is supposed to write called the Birth Plan. It's this little one-page essay-type thing that you write talking about what you expect from your birth experience: who's going to be there, will there be music, how you want to be treated in labor, blah, blah, blah. I don't want to start a huge diatribe here, but GOOD LORD do I loathe the idea of a Birth Plan! The truth is that from the beginning it has always seemed like a half-baked, idiotic scheme made up by hippies who love water births or something equally insane, but now, considering that I'm technically overdue and I may be having to consider delivery methods other than the traditional vaginal delivery, I REALLY can't even stand the thought of it. Here's my issue with the entire thing: OK, fine, so you want to have everything written out, just in case you're too out of it to just up and know what you want to happen at the moment that labor hits, but seriously. Writing a Birth Plan is setting yourself up for disappointment. Why should I write a birth plan if that will only force my brain into believing that the possibilites for birth are not only limited to exactly what I want them to be, but should turn out that way as well? I feel like a Birth Plan is a way of saying to yourself: "this is what my birthing experience will be, and anything different will not be satisfactory." Why would any woman do that on herself? Thanks anyway American Pregnancy Association! Isn't the goal of labor and delivery to bring a beautiful, healthy baby into this world? Why should I have to write a birth plan if the plan is to deliver the baby, however or whenever that might be? It just literally pushes SOO many of my buttons. It's been this way all along, but now that things are where they are with me, and I've had to come to terms with a possible C-Section in the end, I just can't even deal with it! I feel myself teetering between the deep and sincere desire to have a vaginal birth and the terror of having to admit to people that I had to have a C-Section if that's what happens, and a Birth Plan is supposed to help me how? The truth is that I don't want a C-Section, but if that is what needs to happen so little H can safely make his way into the world, so be it. The last thing I need right now is an effing Birth Plan or a load of people waiting in line to judge what will be for me a very last-minute and hesitantly-taken decision. In the end, it's my body, it's my life, and it's my baby, and everything else, Birth Plan included, can just go to hell.
All that said, here's the long and short of my Birth Plan: Have a healthy baby.
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I'm totally with you on that! I think when making a big issue about the BirthPlan you just completely disregard the more important issue at hand which is that after delivering your baby - acording to your birth plan or not - is only the start to the wonderful relationship with your child that you will have - hopefully - for the rest of your life.
While I understand that we all like to have things go our way, we also have to recognize that more often than not they won't and as long as you deliver a healthy, happy baby, what does it matter HOW it was delivered. Thankfully, now we have different options so that our babies as well as we, the moms, can be save even in tricky birthing situations.
I'm just thinking that if I had given birth to Leandro just 100 years ago, one of us might not have survived or suffered major "side-efects"
Moniqua, no matter, how little H arrives, in the end what matters is that he's there! You're absolutely right about that!!!
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