Hi,

re birth plan & the gas not working 10 minutes before birth, sounds like my last one, they need to up the gas!! I didn't realise how good that stuff was until they were stitching me up, that's number one request for my impending birth.

You also mentioned internals, I had 2 with DS, much to my disgust, the first one was copletley un necessary, as I was only 1 cm, but they wanted me there because membranes had ruptured at 5am, by 11 am no real contractions had started, I was pos strep & one week late so was also induced.
This internal was increadibly painfull, and i found myself shuffelling up the bed away from the registrar.

second one was fine, and was just confirmation that the way I was acting was indicative that there was a baby about to come out and that they couldn't wait another 2 hours & assess me for pethadine at that time!!

re kids in hospitals, mine prefers an additional support person for children to be present pending the age of the child, so it may depend on the age.