I know what I do not know.
Mainly what I do know is women are quick to share how horrific their birth experience was. But of course they ALL say, it's all worth it.
I wanted the facts and I wanted to be prepared. I wanted a birth plan and by that I mean knowing what the heck I was aiming to do once I went into labor. Was I going to try natural, how about an epidural, what other interventions am I OK with?
What spooked me a little before going to class was that all of our other classes have been 2 hours and childbirth class was 8 hours long!
But, I'm so glad we went and now I feel ready for it.
In learning about all the options and realities, I have a game plan of what I want to try for. After seeing a couple natural labor/birth stories in class I know I do not want to try for that!
Here's what I came away with...let's compare in a month with what actually ends up happening since labor and birth doesn't like to stick to birth plans.
1. I really want to avoid induction
- Only 2-5% of babies are born on their guess date and around 40% in the 2 weeks after that...I know induction is out of my control largely, but to the extent I can do anything in advance...
- I'm doing this eating dates thing. In a controlled trial it was concluded that the consumption of 6 date fruit/day in the last 4 weeks before labor significantly reduced the need for induction and augmentation of labor, and produced a more favorable, but non-significant, delivery outcome.
2. I'd like to try to stay at home until we get to 4-1-1 or 5-1-1
- This kind of goes along with induction, but I want to avoid intervention and the nurse said once you get to the hospital they kind of just go-go-go to get the labor moving along like breaking the bag of waters, etc.
- Traditionally women have used the 5-1-1 rule; that is, when contractions come every 5 minutes, each lasting a full minute, and have been that way for an hour. More recent recommendations are 4-1-1 (four minutes apart) or even 3-1-1 (three minutes apart). However, listen to your body and trust your instincts.
3. I'd like an epidural please.
- Until I get that epidural I plan to manage contractions through walking, resting, showering and visualizing...interestingly enough when we practiced visualization what calmed me down the most was visualizing riding a cross country course - because...of course. So, I'm thinking I'll be the horse girl watching Rolex and helmet cam videos in L&D to calm the heck down.
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