I have been reading plenty of books, surfing preggy websites and talking to lots of Mums. So I consider myself pretty well informed as far as preparing for birth and motherhood goes. I mean, you can't ever be truly prepared because every pregnancy, every baby, every Mum and every birth is unique. But I needed to read up on the most common scenarios and have a plan, then be prepared for that plan to fly out the window on the day.
Well my plan was to have a natural, (hopefully drug-free) non medically assisted birth. In theory I was open to that changing on the day but I like to think all this positive visualisation of the perfect birth was going to mean that's the way it would happen. What I didn't expect was the plan to change months before the due date and the choice to be taken out of our hands.
At 22 weeks I was told I have Placenta Previa. It's where the placenta has implanted itself over or very close to the cervix. About 5% of pregnancies are low lying and 0.5% of these (including mine) fully cover the cervix. 90% of such pregnancies will correct themselves with the placenta moving away from the cervix far enough for a vaginal birth, the rest require a caesarean section. Bugger!!
I was devo at first, I had a plan!!!! But then I thought there's still plenty of time for it to move. It can't be that stubborn can it? So until this week I was pretty hopeful the placenta would move, but it was not to be. At my check up Stephen confirmed the placenta was still firmly fixed over the cervix. And on top of that the baby is breach (that's why I feel like I am regularly headbutted in the ribs, cos I have!!) so it's pretty certain I'll be having a caesarean and we are tentatively booked in for 26th March.
So now my plan is simple. To give birth to our baby in the safest possible way so she arrives healthy and without distress.
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