Why You Need To Have Birth Plans.

When it comes to the birth of your little one, you need to decide what is going to happen during this time. Will you be having pain medication or not? Natural or C-section. Although we can’t always control this, we usually have a plan.

A lot of us usually lean towards having a natural and drug free birth. But when the time comes for our baby to be born, pain tolerance usually decides this for us. There is no shame in having medication to help us through our child birthing experiences. Because of all the research and everything, we, as women, can be pain free and some what oblivious when our child enters the world.

There is some exceptions to the rule in regards to pain medication. There are those women are terrified of needles, or just want to have the least invasive birth possible. Culture also plays a role in this. There are other options for them in this case (e.g. laughing gas). Some women just have no choice because of technical difficulties, and others just want to be comfortable.

As far as natural birth (whether with drugs or without) or C-section, what ceases to amaze me is we do have a choice if we want one or the other. Oddly enough, some women do choose to have the C-section and avoid the pain of child birth. I guess we are slightly blinded by the fact that yes, if we do choose that method, we do avoid the birthing pains, but what about the pain afterwords? Did you know that a Cesarean is major surgery? What about the pain after that?

For the epidural, have you thought of the complications that could happen during and throughout this? I guess as women, we don’t think of the implications, we just want the quick fix. I won’t scare you with the details of my experience, just be careful.

I have experienced both natural birth and C-section, and let me tell you, I would rather pick the natural birth, no matter the tons of complications that went with it. The recovery afterwords is so much easier and quick compared to the slow recovery of the C-section. After a Cesarean (since the major muscle was cut), you can’t do abdominal exercises for 6 weeks or longer. That definitely can be a drag. Once again, my experiences with these two are quite grotesque, so I won’t scare you with them.

What I am trying to say with this article is: please do your research. Don’t let other people scare you with their stories, but still be open minded to what is available for you. Educate yourself, and your spouse or significant other. Make a plan, and try to stick to it (unless circumstances change it of course). Each experience is unique, so please take it day by day and try to enjoy life.