So last week we met our consultant for the first time. I think I’d really over-estimated her involvement in this pregnancy as it turns out I’ll only be seeing her once more at 35 weeks. It was a short chat that saw her flicking through my notes, asking me two or three questions, and nodding her head a few times. She reminded me a bit of Mo Mowlam.

I knew before I went that I’d be asked about my birth plan, and whether I’d like to attempt a natural delivery this time around. To be honest though, with the house move, the gender scan, and our recent holiday, I hadn’t really thought through what I was going to say. I’d tried to discuss it a few times with Craig but every time Dexter would whack his head on the tv cabinet, emerge from the kitchen with bin-treasure, or insist on serving us a plastic chicken he’d lovingly prepared in his toy kitchen (by ‘insist’, I mean ‘shove in our faces’). There just never seemed to be the time.

To be honest, I’d always assumed a Cesarian section would be my only option after the disaster with Dexter. I’m also a Strep B carrier so always assumed that the doctors would prefer to keep this baby away from the birth canal and whip her out through the sunroof. I knew they’d try to tempt me into a VBAC as it’s more cost-effective for the NHS, but I didn’t think they’d put up much of a fight. It seems I was wrong.

The consultant pointed out the 70% of women achieve a successful normal delivery after experiencing a Cesarian - and there was no reason in my notes to suggest I couldn’t do so too. The Strep B can be controlled via anti-biotics in labour, and it doesn’t follow that the placenta abruption I had with Dexter increases my likelihood of having the same happen again. Never-the-less the choice was very much mine to make.

In my head I had a very crude set of pros and cons to a repeat Cesarian, these being something along the lines of:

PROS

1. Set birth date - easier to plan
2. I know what to expect
3. No threat of Strep B infection being passed to baby
4. The pain and recovery-time the first time around was minimal
5. Less likely to embarrass myself on an operating table (no poo!)

CONS

1. Less exciting - I still wouldn’t know what it feels like to have my waters break
2. I’d have at least 5 days recovery-time in hospital - I HATE hospitals
3. There’s no guarantee the recovery period would be as easy as the first

I knew the consultant would be unlikely to sign off on a Cesarian based on such weak arguments, but I can cry-on-cue and could easily invent some kind of emotional trauma that would convince her to put pen to paper. But for some reason, I didn’t.

I found myself bleating on about how a natural birth was important to me and something I was very keen to (at least) attempt with this baby. Wbere that decision came from, I’ll never really know.. It didn’t really hit me that I’d signed us up to such a huge quantity of Unknowns until I strapped on my seat belt as we left the hospital car park. Knowing me, it’ll be a very long and painful labour, I’ll foul myself on the delivery ward, and Craig and I will argue the whole way through.

Oh well. I guess I can still turn on the waterworks at the 35 week appointment! For now, I’ll just have a few midnight talks with Craigy and try to create some kind of birth plan that doesn’t scare me into early labour (… just in case we actually go through with this thing).