My second child came into the world the wrong way.
He wasn’t unplanned. He didn’t attempt to escape bum-first. He did ruin all my lovely plans to have a natural birth at a healthy point in the pregnancy with the aid of a midwife.
After being checked into the hospital for monitoring around week 30, I told the nurse I couldn’t possibly be facing a necessary C-Section. “I had a birthing plan!” I protested.
The (bad-news) nurse laughed and said, “It’s always the ones with birthing plans that end up in emergency surgery.”
Rude!
But, what if she was right? What if Fate, Karma, or a teasing God wants to remind pregnant women just who’s in control of the miracle of life? Does that mean we ought not to try?
Of course not.
What I will suggest, to any woman expecting, is to be flexible. I went through the worst weeks ever with that second pregnancy, because every week presented a new set of bad news. First, I passed a blood clot and thought I’d killed my unborn baby. Next, I learned I had a placenta previa and would have to have a C-Section; I said, “Goodbye” to my midwife and our natural birthing class. Then, I had bleed after bleed after ambulance ride after bleed after hospital check-in after bleed after emergency delivery by a vertical C-Section.
No natural birth. And, no future vaginal births.
At the time, I was quite upset. But, as I tell one of my children frequently, it doesn’t do any good to fall down a hole and sit at the bottom of it yelling. It certainly doesn’t do any good to muddy yourself up even more in order to look more pitiful.
I’m disappointed that I couldn’t have my birthing plan. But, I’ve since given birth to three more children. And, I got to schedule every one of them. Surgery’s not ideal, but it sure is convenient for a birthing plan to arrange for babysitting.
So there, bad-news nurse.
©2020 Chel Owens
I Didn't Want to Be a Mother 
Well, now I’m glad the only plan I had was to get them out. Though my first came so early that my doctor had only mentioned coming up with a birth plan about a week before.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think there’s no guarantee. Besides, the nurse wouldn’t see all the birthing plans that worked. She would only see the ones who made it into surgery. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s true! Birthing plans are just a ruse they use to make the mom feel like she has some control.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My first was the same – unplanned C-Section so the rest was the same. But vertical though – wow, that had to be a different experience altogether!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was! So many well-meaning friends said things like, “Well, a C-Section won’t be so bad because you can still try for a VBAC.” To her credit, my doctor told me right afterwards so I knew as soon as I could.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Crazy! Sounds painful 😥 But hey, good on you for seeing the positive side of it. A scheduled birth sounds nice😁 (says the woman who had 5 two week overdue babies).
LikeLiked by 1 person
😀 😀 My sister was so jealous because my due date was AFTER hers but I got scheduled to deliver before her.
Coincidentally, she came early, so our babies are only 8 days apart.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh that’s special. It must be nice to have cousins so close in age!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is!
LikeLike
Wow. I just remembered reading this that my second grandchild was born in Salt Lake City.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey! Really? Small world! Does your family still live here?
LikeLiked by 1 person
No. They moved back to Houston – and now live on the other side of the Atlantic.
LikeLike
😦 Well, maybe they’ll move back again.
LikeLike
They have no desire to move back. They love it there and have permanent residency.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love how you wrote this. And the muddy pit—I have a child who needs to learn about this!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Seriously -I need to cross-stitch it and hang it on his face.
LikeLike