Ignorance ain’t bliss.

So off I went at 21 weeks.

New hospital. New obstetrician - a queen in the delivery room I was told.

“Have you thought about your birth plan?”

Plan? Already? 

I was surprised that she was asking me so early on. I knew at the very least I was aiming for a natural birth (now I know that “natural birth” is a massive umbrella term). But she made me feel like my wishes were heard and taken seriously. That we’d be on the same page all the way through.

Doc handed me a checklist of the hospital’s birth plan options as a guide for me to begin creating my own.

That very night, I blew up Google with my relentless searches.

Catherisation? What for? Labour augmentation? And what the fuck was syntocinon? I thought I just had to push and now I had all these things I might need to consider.

Then I got deep. Deep into reading about physiological birth. Magical and euphoric.

And then I got even deeper. Discovering the existence of obstetric abuse and traumatic birthing experiences.

I always assumed a traumatic birth was the consequence of an unplanned, true medical emergency. Something going completely wrong. Life or death.

But I learned that many of them were a direct result of common hospital and obstetric practices. This stressed me out. I went from feeling like I was in good hands, to deciding I had to protect us from a potential ward of poker faces.

As supportive as it seemed, I still had to birth my baby via the system here. So how much free will would I truly have on the big day?

For me it was final. Absolutely no unnecessary medical interventions of any kind. But to know what was necessary and what wasn’t, I needed to find out more.

They say ignorance is bliss. But knowledge, my darlings. Knowledge is power.

Talk soon x