Hi Everyone

Hello, i have been looking at this website more for interests sake at the moment. I have 2 children already and we are considering another so naturally i got curious and was looking around. I delivered both my children ( a boy and a girl) naturally and totally drug free, which wasn't easy my daughter was 8 14 big bubby. I have noticed from reading the threads that a lot of you have done so much research and planning etc, this kind of concerned me i know how exiciting pregnancy and birth is but nothing can be planned or expected. i never attended birthing classes, more because i worked and they weren't available at the times i was, but i felt that your body knows just what to do when the time comes even with the first one. i am not trying to put a downer on anyones expereince as it is wonderful just don't try and plan what is going to happen during delivery as it can change so rapidly. I also noticed that i kind of went into a dazed state totally focused on getting the baby out and anything i read went out the window!. Child birth and raising children is a wonderful experience but it is something that you need to experience yourself and go with your own intiative, you will know what to do.

Good Luck to you all with your deliveries

Just moving this to the Labour and Birth forum.

Yes, some women do like to have their births planned out, but I think you will find that almost all women who have a birth plan are very open to the possibility that things wont go according to plan - it is simply a guide as to how they want the birth to go and what sort of things they would like to see happen, like delayed cord clamping, breast crawl, physiological third stage etc.

For my first three births, I never had anything written down on paper as such, but there were still things that I wanted to have happen kwim? I am also a 'go with the flow' kind of person so I knew that if things had to change then that was OK too.

And it isn't a 'plan' so much as 'preferences'. It is so important these days to do your own research on things and not assume that your care providers are telling you the whole story - some wont tell you unless you ask them about it first and others will have their own agenda and even go so far as to mock your ideas. Research and education may seem like putting too much thought into the birth process as yes, your body does know what to do when the time comes but a little knowledge goes a long way.

Well for me, I know that I had a really bad first labour with DS, so I am researching things that I can do differently this time around to make it a bit better.
Im glad you could become so focussed and relied just on your body, but for a lot of people, I think we just like researching as much about our bodies as possible.
I believe that you cannot prepare yourself too much for what comes during labour. And I have already made some big decisions on what I am going to do differently, so I do not repeat my 24 hour labour with DS.