Birth plan options - all opinions/ experiences welcome!

[Rachae]

Hi! 😊

I'm fairly early in my pregnancy and coming up to 11 weeks. I was asked about birthing plan options at my booking appointment and have been researching ever since. What's your thoughts?

Birthing centre - no epidural? Big deal? Or an absolute must?

Normal ward/ epidural situation - too clinical? Loads of women screaming like in the films..?!

Home Birth - definitely a no no for first time mums?

C-Section - apart from maybe needing a blood transfusion... What's not to love about this option?

Xxx

I had an elective c section - loved it!! It was at my request. It was a really positive experience as I knew I didn’t want the unpredictability of a vaginal birth. I was in hospital for 24 hours snd my recovery was good. I didn’t need a blood transfusion.

I'm 10.5 wks and haven't thought about this just yet, I will do though.

I have my 12 wks scan at 13wks so have told myself I would think about options then.

I had a very traumatic natural birth with my 1st (10 yrs ago) no pain relief as I was too far gone
I had retained placenta and surgery for a year
I'm sure I had trauma from this and I'm scared of going through it again.

I've often thought of elective c section but don't know enough about it.

I took 6months to feel normal again, lots of internal cuts and bleed for weeks after and left with scars - so for me I would like to explore other options
X

You've got loads of time so don't worry too much yet!
I had a homebirth this year with my first. Midwives and doctors all on board. It was great.
I did loads of reading around birth in general and statistics of environments and interventions etc before making my decision. I'd always wanted a hospital birth so massively surprised myself! It's all about what's right for you. Congratulations!

Thanks @upupupintheair really appreciate your response! Yea sounds good to me... I'm pretty scared of all the things that could go wrong with a 'natural' delivery. Like yours @strawberrysummer19 aww poor you that sounds horrendous!

I've done a bit of research into C-Sections and from what I understand, women seem to be put off these due to them costing the NHS quite a lot more. The arguments against having one seem largely assumptive and ideological i.e. people say 'natural is best for baby etc - without much more than that.

I'm open to everyone's experiences tho... Such a tricky one to mull over! Xx

I went into a labour ward and women were screaming 😂😂😂 as was I until I had the epidural (highly recommended) maybe I'm just a wimp tho 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

@User65412 thanks for your response 😊 wow yes that sounds lovely and a home birth must have been so much more comfortable and intimate than a hospital? Do you mind if I ask you about the pain please? Xx

@Limegreentangerine 🤣🤣 yes I think that would be me too!

Sorry I didn't have surgery for a year it was meant to read a tear!

It's not to put anyone off it's just my experience and the pain really was unbearable in my opinion and I woudnt want to not have an epidural this time I've always said

I pushed for 1hr 52mins - I did have a 9lb baby mind.

The retained placenta was also horrible and 2hrs after having contractions after baby was born

X

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/guest_posts/4302468-Guest-post-Women-are-expected-to-go-home-with-life-changing-injuries-after-giving-birth-and-just-get-on-with-it

Have never given birth but this thread has cemented my decision to absolutely never attempt a vaginal delivery.

I strongly recommend it to anyone struggling with such a decision.

Everyone's experiences are completely different but once I felt uncomfortable enough to call the midwife out, I was already 9cm and had been in established labour for some time without realising. Yes the contractions were painful but I could deal with it knowing each one would stop and I'd have a very short breather before the next one. So it was nowhere near as bad as I thought. I had planned to see how I went with the pain and go to hospital if I wanted to, but I'd done so much on my own I thought I could do it and it was a bit late to go anyway! The pushing part was hard, yes, but I was so 'in the moment' I didn't really notice. Gas and air for stitches after helped. I feel very lucky to have had such a straightforward birth.

Really recommend the positive birth company's digital hypnobirthing course pack. It covers everything.

I find it utterly baffling why anyone would choose anything other than a natural birth in a midwife/borth centre if there are no medical issues.

Previously I worked at a specialist physio and the c section side effects I saw were horrific life changing injuries.

My labour was a lovely calm experience where I felt in control and supported by the midwives rather than a medical procedure run by doctors. I was home after 5 hours and outland about the next day.

The only woman with long term issues from birth in my nct was a young girl whose c section scar took over a year to fully heal and had infection after infection.

There’ll be all manner of advice on here ranging from drug free water births to planned sections.

There is no right answer, so I’d suggest doing some reading and see what you’re drawn too.

Everyone i know who had a vaginal delivery had a great one it's just they aren't talked about as you get told you are gloating or shaming woman who had elcs.

For what it’s worth, I did hypnobirthing and had a water birth with gas and air. That bit was lovely, but the multiple days long, unmedicated labour preceding it was very difficult.

I find it utterly baffling why anyone would choose anything other than a natural birth in a midwife/borth centre if there are no medical issues.

Natural births sometimes mean:
-tears of varying degrees
-episiotomy
-forceps
-ventouse
-urinary and fecal incontinence
-prolapse
-chonic pain during sex
-hemorage
-rushed emergency C section
-no options for pain relief

Do I need to go on?

Your opinion is very dismissive of the very real risks of a "natural" birth

I was asked at about 30 weeks if I had any thoughts on a birth plan.
Ideally I preferred the idea of a water birth. No epidural unless absolutely necessary but was willing to take any other pain relief offered! I have back issues and was worried about making this worse.
Ill be honest and say I wasnt dead set on this plan, it would have been nice but not the end of the world.

What I found though is that I developed pre-eclampsia at 38 weeks and had to have an emergency induction.
This meant no water birth as I required constant monitoring.
The induction pushed things along way quicker than the midwives anticipated and my labour lasted less than 2 hours.
I didnt have chance for any pain relief except paracetamol (which i threw up immediately and they wouldnt give anything else).
I had a token gesture of gas and air for the last couple of pushes once it had been set up in the room.

I guess my point is, have ideas of what you would like to happen and would like to avoid. Talk them through with your birth partner so they can speak for you if necessary.
But, anything can happen so dont have your heart set on the ideal.
I know my situation wasnt the norm, but it can happen and I was not prepared for the emergency situations that arose for me following the birth.
Research everything and get lots of information from your midwife now and have a good chat with your partner about options.
When it comes down to it though, whatever your midwives suggest mid labour, go with it! (As long as you feel comfortable)

Definitely recommend home birth or home from home unit if available in your local area and you meet the criteria. Most women find they end up coping really well in those settings but can always transfer in to obstetric unit if decide would like an epidural

I had a tricky enough VB with dc1 but I would still take that over CS. The whole CS procedure was absolutely fine, but I did not have a good recovery. Recovery from VB was significantly better. After CS i felt awful. Sick, high on morphene, couldn't stand up straight or walk any distance for a good few days, sex was significantly more uncomfortable for me after CS (think dc head was massive and really pushing into my pelvis, so they struggled to get him out, almost needing forceps during the CS).

BUT, it's impossible to predict. Outcomes I think are slightly better ON AVERAGE for mothers having a VB (I know specific cases won't reflect that necessarily, but statistically, that is what I was told), but babies have slightly better outcomes with CS. But then breastfeeding can be more difficult after CS (was for us), and bf is meant to be slightly better for babies.

It's so, so hard to predict.

For me, my plan if I had my time again would be to try the birthing centre first and then just see how it goes. I did have an epidural with dc1, but that was due to long and difficult labour with induction on a drip. Who know though? I may have ended up having one with a more straightforward labour too

Just to say that you have ages to go yet and lots can change so do your research but be open to all possibilities as I think you can get hung up on your preferred option.

I was all set to have a water birth in a midwife led unit until I was told 4 days before I needed to be induced on a consultant led maternity ward. It really threw me as a FTM!

Planned elective sections here. They were the best decisions I made. I don’t like the unpredictability of vaginal births, and there can still be long recovery periods. Most of my family and friends had complications with them and I wanted more predictability.
My recoveries with the sections were very fast and no problems at all. They are very safe.

The staff at the local Womens Hospital were great.

I think however much you read up, there isn't a great deal that can prepare you for the reality of labour. So while beforehand one might plan for minimal pain relief, when you're having contractions you might want more.

And you can't know whether labour will be straightforward.

I really do think the main thing is - although you want there to be good communication throughout - - that you end up with a safely delivered baby and not to get hung up about it as some kind of consumer choice, particularly as there's all sorts of factors which mean your ''choice' is no longer advisable/available.. (Yes, if there is potentially some choice of hospitals you might want to look up reports and statistics. Even then, my hospital was the one where women with complications would be referred so their stats might compare unfavourably with a smaller hospital. But actually what you want is a place where staff are experienced and can deal with anything that doesn't go 100% to plan.)

If you are planning to do NCT classes, they will cover birth options in lots of detail and all the pros and cons. Ours was very well balanced and didnt push one over another (although appreciate that was probably down to an excellent course leader and maybe not everyone has the same experience).

In our hospital, the birth centre is a couple of floors above the delivery suite so you don't have to make a choice until you go into labour unless you want homebirth or ELCS. I wanted to try for a water birth but for various risk factors, i was advised to go for delivery suite. As it was, my labour started at 37+6w and the birth centre was full so i had to go for the delivery suite. This ended up being a good thing as it meant my baby could have continuous monitoring, which caught early that her heart rate was dipping.

I wasnt on my back on a bed, i wanted to be on the floor and the midwives made that possible for me. If I'd wanted soft lights and music i could also have that in the delivery suite, although i was past the point of caring about that once things got going! I also never heard a single other woman screaming. I was so focused on my own labour, i dont think I'd have noticed if there was someone screaming next to me!

I thought i wanted a drug free birth - after a couple of hours of contractions, i changed my mind and REALLY wanted an epidural!!! It turned out though that i laboured fast and although i thought i must be 3 or 4cm dilated, when examined, i was actually already at 9cm so just had gas and air. So I'd done the painful contractions with just paracetamol. Not going to lie, yes it was bloody painful (especially when the baby's head crowned) but the gas and air worked for me - it doesn't for everyone. I also had it for the stitches, which was great. My pushing stage was only something like 15mins? So relatively short.

I couldn't have considered a homebirth as i was high risk for preeclampsia and baby was small so my pregnancy was too high risk. My baby was also very poorly after the birth so i was very grateful to be in hospital, where her infection (Group B strep sepsis) was caught quickly and she had excellent care in NICU / SCBU.

DH and i didn't really have a "birth choices" / birth plan. We agreed to no opiates and for everything else we went with the flow. My advice would be to do lots of reading, keep an open mind for now and see how your pregnancy develops. You might find that some decisions are made for you depending on if you are high risk in certain areas. Good luck!

My birth plan with DD was:
Ideal - water birth with gas and air, but open to other pain relief or options depending on the situation. Definitely no diamorphine as it makes me sick.

Actual birth - arrived at the midwife led birthing centre to find my bp sky high and it was recommended I go straight up to the labour ward (birthing centre on ground floor, maternity wards on 3rd floor)
Gas and air had zero effect by that point so had an epidural, and then an assisted delivery with forceps and episiotomy.

I found it easier not having a set, rigid "plan" as things rarely go to plan in normal life! Plus I trusted the maternity staff's advice and recommendations as they do it every day.

@HacerSonarSusPasos couldn't put it better myself! How anyone can find something baffling why they wouldn't chose their option clearly hasn't read the thread you linked. I relate to so much of that content it makes me upset
Yet I chose to bottle it up and not deal with it when in reality my tear, the experience which I don't think helped and my awful natural birth experience has left me scarred

• I know everyone doesn't go through what I have and lots of people have nice experiences - most my friends have actually, but the whole point of this thread is to share your own experiences and opinions so OP can make ( and others ) and informed decision that suits them not say how people are baffled with not choosing something?

X