Did your birth plans go to plan?

[MillieMoon94]

Just that really, I was wondering if anyone had any weird and wonderful stories to share? Just curious.

My first birth was pretty straight forward, had a show when I got up at 8am, followed by gradually worsening contractions throughout the day. Went to the hospital at 4pm and DS was born at 6:20pm, 10 days before due date.

DD was due on Christmas Eve just gone (so badly planned 😂). I was playing in the snow with DS on 11th and everything was fine, then the next day on my way back from taking DS to nursery I started getting contractions. We’d planned a home birth this time, but when we called the midwife at about 6:30pm she said she would be delayed due to snow. Long story short, DD was delivered by my boyfriend on our living room sofa at 9:10pm, midwife arrived at about 9:30pm 😂

No weird and wonderful stories here but I'm going to tell you about them anyway!

I didn't really have a plan with my first. While it was quite straight forward it was very long and I was treated quite badly by the midwives and left traumatised. Took me a long time to get over it.

With my second (many years after my first!) I wanted a homebirth but ended up being induced and had the most perfect water birth in hospital. It was wonderful, I was treated so kindly and respectfully by my two midwives and it was very healing. I was on top of the world after, felt amazing physically and mentally.

By birth plan was quite detailed , as I was very clear about where my limits were for intervention. I can't have an epidural or a spinal so I intended to decline induction and agree to a section if the medical team wanted to get baby out. As it turned out, baby got stuck, I didn't dilate and we ended up skipping all the 'lovely calm natural birth' part and went straight to 'best possible c-section'.
It took some insistence at the time as the obstetrician was really pushing for me to have the synto drip but I really feel that I had the best possible experience of an emcs under general.

No. 1: no - marathon labour and cascade of intervention ending in instrumental birth.
No. 2: no - great start, went off calmly to hospital with mild but increasing contractions to find I was 9cm on arrival and have an instrumental birth half an hour later.
No. 3: no - induced, very little happened for several hours and then went from 2cm to birth in 20 minutes.

I'm not having any more. But I would have liked a nice, intervention-free, gradually-ramping-up labour long enough for me to get my head round what was happening but short enough not to be horrible and exhausting. Might even have got a water birth.

Sort of. My plan was "have a baby". That bit went to plan. Otherwise I wanted to be in the midwife led unit and ended up in delivery suite. I originally said no pethedine & stuck to that, originally hoped to have no epidural and although I really wanted it there wasn't enough time.

Frankly DD arrived safely and I had a relatively uncomplicated labour. I'm happy with that.

I really wanted a water birth with only gas and air (I was adamant I wasn't having anything else has I hate needles)

ended up being induced on the drip so couldn't even walk around much just stand up to turn baby and I was begging for pethidine- (so much for my phobia of needles, I had a cannula and 3 injections, plus stitches)

the only thing that went to plan was DP cutting the cord,

I attended quite a few antenatal groups (positive birthing movement) and there was quite a culture of knowing exactly what you wanted and questioning everything, and people being traumatised by things being perceived as out of their control, even though the outcome was positive. So I started drafting a fairly details birth plan.

Meanwhile I was have lots of baby chats with best friend who is a obstetric catastrophe (one extreme premie, a episiotomy/forceps delivery, cat1 emergency c section at full term resulting in a still birth, and finally a planned c section but her waters broke early so even that wasn't to plan). My friend gave me an amazing sense of perspective (which I will always be grateful for) and I changed my birth plan to "I would like to walk out of hospital with my baby in my arms within a week of the birth and I will be happy". Beyond that I had a vague list of preferences... Midwifery led unit, try the birthing pool, Avoid an epidural if at all possible... But other than that to be guided by the midwife/Dr. As it turned out I had a pre labour rupture of membranes, so that ruled out the midwifery led unit and birthing pool and I had to have continuous monitoring and a 24 hour stay in hospital, non of which was a big deal. DD is healthy and happy and perfect.

With my second I planned a home birth. Hired a pool. Midwife arrived at 5.35pm, found me in the bathroom leaning over the bath as ds2 was crowning. Shouted to DH who was downstairs telling him to get her bags. Ds born at 5.43pm

I didn't write a birth plan in the end as I suspected nothing would go as I wanted it..

I ended up with a lengthy failed induction, a transverse baby and an EMCS which wasn't quite the "relaxing" trip to the birthing suite I was hoping for!

Yes - two lovely relaxed births at home, largely as expected and as hoped for - feel v grateful about that.

Needed stitches after DC1's speedy arrival so took care to slow right down pushing DC2 out, but then she came out with her hand up so tore again anyway. That's the only thing I'd have changed about either birth.

I wrote basically the same birth plan for both births, only for DC1 it probably took two A4 pages whereas with DC2 I summarised it in five v short bullet points.

With my first birth it didn't really go to plan. I was induced and it went really slowly. I did get the epidural I had already decided I wanted but the episeotomy definitely wouldn't have been my first choice! I was just glad when it was all over and my son was safely out.

My second birth went pretty much exactly how I wanted it. I was 11 days overdue and booked in for another induction which I was reaaaaaally upset about. Thankfully the night before I was due in, she decided to start the ball rolling on her own. I wanted a water birth. I got one. After the epidural with my first, I really didn't want to do that again. Water birth was an incredible experience. I felt far more relaxed and in control. No other drugs except gas and air. After they stitched me up I was walking around again pretty much like nothing even happened. About 30 mins after the birth I was sat with a cup of tea, jam on toast and having a chin wag on the phone to my mum. Two totally different experiences but ultimately the same result. If I could afford more children I would have them all in a birthing pool!

No birth plan with any of my labours, 1 spontaneous and 2 inductions.

I asked for birthing pool during both inductions, both times pool was being filled but never got used.

Nope, got rushed from one hospital to the other when I was having full blown contractions as my sons heart rate was dipping with each contraction, I was meant to have him at Maidstone birth centre, ended up in pembury

Thank you all so much for your responses ladies, sorry to hear some of you had a difficult time. Looks like we’ve had some wide and varied experiences but ultimately got the same result which is all that matters 😘 xx

I had a very casual birth plan, I put that I would like to go on MLU if possible, maybe the pool, no to pethadine and that was it. I spent the second half of my pregnancy expecting a preemie and having steroid injections at 24 weeks, so I was just so happy to make it to term that the rest didn't really matter. My waters started to go at home at 1.30 am, contractions started at 2.30am, I was the last one to get on MLU before it was full and DD arrived at 7.17am, I tried the pool but wasn't keen, so got out during pushing :) feel very lucky.

Yes. With my first one the plan was to have a baby. DS was 9lb 6oz and back to back. It ended with a forceps in theatre, shoulder dystocia, a PPH and a 3rd degree tear. We were both fine, although very sore.

The second time my ideal to push a baby out and not to have a third degree tear, which went v smoothly thanks to my obstetrician, and lovely kind midwife who understood how frightened I was.

@annlee3817 I’m so glad things went smoothly for you in the end.
@GuessHowMuchILoveGin I’m sorry to hear about your first experience, that must have been horrible for you. I’m glad to hear things were a little easier for you second time around.

No x2

First my waters broke at 41 weeks with meconium in them. Put on the drip which was horrendous. Epidural didn't work. After 29 hours of ridiculously painful labour I got to 7cm and DD was meal-positioned and basically stuck. Off to theatre for EMCS.

Second I went into labour and started with fairly strong and painful contractions. Got to hospital and they bypassed triage and sent me straight to delivery. Upon examination realised I wasn't actually in labour (cervix high), but that I had a nasty uterine infection that induced false labour. Baby at risk so taken to theatre for EMCS number 2. DD2 very poorly at birth and had to have 6 days of IV antibiotics post birth.

Now pregnant with #3. Going for ELCS!

Mal-positioned*

Hah. No. I had written at the very top: “not to be induced unless medically necessary for the survival of either baby or myself”. Guess what?! Although after that it was pretty much as I wanted it. Although for some reason despite the option of the water (which I said I wanted) I didn’t actually ask if I could use it by the time I got there. Oh and I said I didn’t want to labour on my back. Which went out of the window when I relied being on all fours made things happen wasaaayyyy too quickly for my liking thankyou very much! But overall I’d do it again tomorrow. I only needed a pessary and then everything was as if I’d spontaneously gone into labour.

My birth plan was very simple, to spend as little time in hospital as possible. I ended up with a 5 night stay in a jam packed maternity ward, an epidural that didn't work and forceps delivery in theatre (with a very very very attractive anaesthetist)

My little boys cute though

*realised. Fat fingers!

My first was uneventful. My second was due at Christmas, and I fleetingly considered planning a home birth - but thankfully, I’m a doctor and rapidly decided that was a stupid and dangerous idea. So fortunately, DD2 arrived in hospital, a normal delivery, but almost dead (Apgar score of 1), not breathing, having multi focal epileptic seizures and with a barely discernible heartbeat. She needed the crash team, intracardiac adrenalin injections, 3 different anticonvulsants, intubated and ventilated. Still completely unresponsive, she had to be blue lighted to the specialist SCBU at our teaching hospital. On Xmas Eve, we went in to discuss donating her heart for a baby in Great Ormond St, as she still hadn’t breathed.
However, DD2 is made of stern stuff. By the time we drove to the hospital, she’d pulled out her endotracheal tube and was shouting (hoarsely!) and waving one arm, which was all she could manage, being hemiplegic from a cerebral bleed.
We got her home a week later, and she never looked back. Her paralysis resolved, and she has now graduated, travelled the world, and has an excellent job.
I shudder to think if I’d gone for a daft plan of a romantic Xmas home birth, DD2 would be dead.
Moral of story - sod birth plans, just go where the maximum medical intervention is available on site - because any low risk labour can go horribly wrong without warning!

@MissT2095 my anaesthetist was a hottie too!

Mine went very much to plan. Waters broke a week early at 4:30am, contractions started 10 mins later, went to hospital at about 2:30pm, had a lovely (actually really tough because it’s bloody labour and labour is hard!) waterbirth with only gas and air. It was exactly what I wanted. Lovely midwife and delayed cord clamping.

I would like exactly the same for next one, although maybe a bit quicker!

@Babdoc what an amazing story, thank you for sharing. I feel really bad (and lucky) for opting for a home birth with my second who was due at Christmas now.
@ThatGirl82 your labour sounds perfect! As perfect as labour can be anyway! 😂
Thank you all so much for sharing your stories, I’m really enjoying reading them xx