For me, preparing for the birth was almost scientific. I read up on all the ins and outs of how it all works. I had faith in my body's ability to produce its own "pain killers", and for me, picturing what my body was actually doing helped a lot.

As for birthplans.. I didn't have one. Me & DH knew our "plan". I guess it wouldn't have hurt to have written something down for the benefit of the midwives.. coz I guess all they saw was a 1st time mum in pain, and not knowing my plan was to have no drugs, they kept telling me it was ok if I needed something for the pain. DH ended up going out and telling her to stop offering. I guess she really had no idea what I wanted, and if I had put in a plan that I wanted support for no drugs, they may have been a little more hands-on in helping me with alternatives. (possibly? hehe)

Hospital education. It's hard to say, I liked our ante-natal class, and I found the midwife who conducted it was more than willing to discuss things with us, and it was very pro- active birth in my opinion. They encouraged learning pain management techniques, and only using drugs as a last alternetive. However, having said that.. it could be improved by telling us WHERE to learn the pain management techniques! hehe. I found the classes complimented my own research really well, but if that was the only education you received, I think it would be lacking.

The crisis in confidence.. yup.. had that! lol. Transition is a very real thing.. and I was almost ready to scream for an epidural myself! Being aware of transition and having your support partner aware of it too is really important I reckon.

Describing the pain - I've never really experienced bad pain before. I knew it was going to hurt, but I also knew that it was going to hurt in waves. And I think that's what I focused on rather than the ouchies if you know what I mean. Heck.. if it was constant.. there's no way I could do it.. but knowing i was going to get a break (even a small one!) inbetween helped me through each contraction. Hate to be cliche here, but you do forget the pain. If I really think about the labour, I certainly do remember it, but it wasn't the horror pain that some people describe it as (and I was augmented with syntocin drip!).

Sorry this post has been bits and pieces with what's been talked about here. Will just check what Kelly's original question was!.......

hmm.. I wanted a natural birth and definitely meant it. When I spoke to other people about it, they pretty much scoffed at it, and I guess they thought I was a bit detached from reality with my "ideals". But my wanting a natural birth was backed up with me doing lots of reading, and finding a way to have just that. I found for me the information on the benefits to the baby were the best motivation. I wasn't focused so much on the natural birth suiting me, as I was for wanting my baby to be born naturally.. if that makes sense. (??)