I've gotta be honest and wonder out loud (well, in typing) just what good birth plans really are. A woman is not going to know what she can/can't cope with until she is there, experiencing the labour. If a birth plan is evidence that a woman has considered all the possibilities of what can happen in labour, and has indicated in the plan what things she would/wouldn't want to happen to her, then that is surely a good thing. Of course, women who indicate before going into labour that they would prefer a totally non-interventionist labour are more likely to get their wish. But labour complications do happen and someone with high hopes of no intervention - vis a vis a birth plan - might end up more disappointed by their actual labour than if they hadn't had a birth plan in the first place.

I chose not to have a birth plan but had done all the research and had hopes of a non intervention labour. Regardless, my labour required intervention. If I'd had a birth plan I might have felt I didn't measure up to my birth plan 'standards'.