You’ve written a birth plan, asked your support person to be on call, packed a hospital bag, followed all your doctors orders; things just seem to be going perfectly, so why shouldn’t the rest of your pregnancy and the labor and delivery?

Unfortunately, no amount of planning can prepare you for the unexpected. While pregnancies and giving birth occurs daily, no two pregnancies are the same. No matter how routine or normal your pregnancy may appear to be, sometimes the unexpected may happen, throwing a kink into all you have so meticulously planned.

I’m not trying to freak you out or send you into a panic attack, but just remind you of reality.

Personally speaking, I had everything planned and I just knew that things would happen exactly the way I had envisioned. Boy was I wrong! Many unexpected things occurred in the end of my pregnancy. Number one being Charlie, eager to see the world, came four weeks early. Boy was I not prepared for that one! I remember thinking over and over that he could NOT come early, that I still had four precious weeks left with him. I guess he had his own agenda and didn’t take mine into consideration.

The second unexpected occurrence was the medical necessity of a c-section. I was totally not prepared for that either. I quickly had to make a decision as to who would go into the operating room for the c-section with me. It was tough making a decision like that rather quickly because my first thought was not about whom I wanted or needed to support me in the OR, but that whomever I didn’t choose might have their feelings hurt. I wish I’d thought of the possibility of a c-section before all of that occurred so I wouldn’t have had to make a hasty decision. In hindsight though, I made the right choice.

Childbirth is an exact science so it’s definitely wise to keep in mind that no amount of planning can stop the unexpected from happening.