I love reading the birth stories on BB, they're all so beautiful But I've noticed a fairly common theme when people talk about their support people - generally partners.

So, we have a woman who is pregnant. She researches EVERYTHING and is determined to have an empowered birth experience, vaginal or caesar. She makes sure she is completely confident in her answers to professionals who threaten to induce her big baby, or cut her so she doesn't tear, or anything else that goes against her birth plan. *All of which is GREAT, I promise I'll get to the point*

She also decides to have her partner with her for support. The only thing is, while she's done all this research, has her partner? When she goes into labour, and its too late to Google things, is her partner as confident in the face of cascading interventions? Or is her partner more likely to be scared by the (sometimes) OTT warnings, and then become a support person for the doctors rather than the labouring woman?

I've noticed that a lot of women feel let down by their support person, because when they really NEEDED support, their support got intimidated. So my long awaited questions are - How important do you think it is for your support person/s to be as informed as you are? Do you think it would have made a difference in your birth experience if they were more informed?