Are birth plans a waste of time?

[~clover~]

I wish I found this site earlier.
I'm not planning on having anymore babies, but I really would love to have a doula if I ever did have any more.
I'd never heard of them before.

With my first birth my mum & MIL were great, my 2nd it was only DH & I, but I had an excellent MW.
With DS MIL was there (DH had to travel from 2 hours away), but she sat in the corner & stayed out of the way. I had noone holding my hand for the hour or more til DH got there & the MW pretty much left me to labour. I felt pretty alone. Then DH nearly did pass out, & I was alone again.
I was hooked up to a monitor & couldn't really move due to macconium. I was lucky that it was a quick labour though.

But to have someone to help me through it like that would've been good. The MW's this time around were great too, but were only really there for the actual birth. & even though I screamed at them to 'pull it out!!' they said 'No, your going to push this baby out yourself!'