Just out of curiosity, did you end up making any compromises during/after your labors? If so, when did you end up choosing your battles and possibly giving up on something that was in your birth plan?
During my first pregnancy, I wrote in my birth plan that I wanted to delay cord clamping. Neither of my OBs made any mention of it until after DS was born. The resident OB was very uneasy about delayed clamping and said she'd been researching it since reading my birth plan. She said she'd be willing to delay clamping only if she could wrap up the baby and hold him below my heart to prevent blood from leaving his body and traveling back down the umbilical cord to my placenta.
It sounded completely ridiculous to me but I've since learned that many doctors have that same opinion. At the time, I wasn't willing to fight it, and told her to give me my baby and clamp the cord. For me, the benefit of holding my baby right away outweighed the stress of an argument between the OB and me.
During my third labor, I told my OB I didn't want internal exams or artificial rupture of membranes. After 11 hours of labor (not counting the month of prodromal labor before that...ugh!) the baby's head still was not engaging. I was 9cm dilated and she was heading towards my right hip and despite various positional techniques, she refused to go straight down and out. Knowing that I didn't want AROM, the OB gently mentioned that if she broke my water, it would probably force the baby's head into the birth canal and she'd be born soon after. I consented and sure enough, she broke my water and my daughter was born ten minutes later. Of course, she later said "This is why I'm nervous about homebirths - what if this had happened at home?!?" and I thought to myself "you just broke my water with something that looks like a crochet hook...I'm sure the midwife could figure it out."
During my first pregnancy, I wrote in my birth plan that I wanted to delay cord clamping. Neither of my OBs made any mention of it until after DS was born. The resident OB was very uneasy about delayed clamping and said she'd been researching it since reading my birth plan. She said she'd be willing to delay clamping only if she could wrap up the baby and hold him below my heart to prevent blood from leaving his body and traveling back down the umbilical cord to my placenta.
It sounded completely ridiculous to me but I've since learned that many doctors have that same opinion. At the time, I wasn't willing to fight it, and told her to give me my baby and clamp the cord. For me, the benefit of holding my baby right away outweighed the stress of an argument between the OB and me.During my third labor, I told my OB I didn't want internal exams or artificial rupture of membranes. After 11 hours of labor (not counting the month of prodromal labor before that...ugh!) the baby's head still was not engaging. I was 9cm dilated and she was heading towards my right hip and despite various positional techniques, she refused to go straight down and out. Knowing that I didn't want AROM, the OB gently mentioned that if she broke my water, it would probably force the baby's head into the birth canal and she'd be born soon after. I consented and sure enough, she broke my water and my daughter was born ten minutes later. Of course, she later said "This is why I'm nervous about homebirths - what if this had happened at home?!?" and I thought to myself "you just broke my water with something that looks like a crochet hook...I'm sure the midwife could figure it out."
