Birth plan doesn’t guarantee a mother’s wishes will be met
By Danell Swim
March 25, 2008
First-time mother Trisha Lawrie researched the impending birth of her daughter as though she were preparing a lesson plan for her high school English classes.
She read every book she could find, focusing particularly on materials that provided information on how to avoid Caesarean sections. She hired a doula and started Lamaze classes with her husband, David.
She also prepared a birth plan, a list of preferences that she wanted her midwife to follow during labor and delivery.
Unfortunately, Lawrie’s best-laid plans took a startling turn after her water broke. A series of events chipped away at what she considered the most monumental event in her life.
Lawrie found the birth clouded by all the things she had tried to avoid: drugs to start contractions, an epidural, a failed vacuum extraction and ultimately a C-section that prevented Lawrie from holding her daugther, Camryn, seconds after the 7-pound, 1-ounce girl entered the world.
Both mother and daughter are healthy and happy, but Lawrie found the experience so traumatic and unsettling that she joined the International Cesarean Awareness Network, a nonprofit organization whose goals include lowering C-section rates through education.
Whether Lawrie could have stuck with her original desire to deliver naturally instead of following the advice of her midwife is difficult to say. As a first-time mother, Lawrie said she was too worried to argue when her specialist decided to admit her to the hospital last fall before she had even begun dilating.
What is clear is that birth plans, which are not considered binding agreements, may go by the wayside when a delivery doesn’t go normally.
It’s also worth noting that while birth plans encourage expectant mothers to communicate their wishes, not every doctor embraces them.
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