It turns out I was right not to write a birth plan.

After considering the pros and cons of writing one, and wanting the ‘perfect’ birth like last time but fearing writingΒ my hopesΒ down would mean the opposite would happen, I left the page completely blank ahead of Littlest B’s arrival on Valentine’s Day.

Why I was right not to write a birth plan

And it’s just as well, because we’d have fallen at the first hurdle.

When the time came to call the hospital to tell them we were coming in the unthinkable happened: the maternity unit was full.

Yep, there was no room at the inn.

In a matter of seconds the picture I’d built in my mind of travelling toΒ our local hospital five minutes up the road, labouring in a birthing pool I could visualise because I’d been there before and recovering in a room overlooking the sea like I did with Little BΒ evaporated.

We were off to a hospital 40 minutes away, not only in a different town but inΒ a different county, to a birthing unit I’d never been to before and a maternity wing I knew nothing about.

And there’s a big difference between a 40 minute car journey when in labour and a five minute one. About eight contractions to be exact.

Can you imagine if I’d had my heart set on giving birth in our local hospital? Can you imagine the panic and uncertainty that might have set in as the plans came crashing down? It’s the sort of hiccup that could throw the best of us and send things heading in a completely different direction…

Of course there was nothing for it but to take a deep breath and get on with it – mainly getting there as fast as possible. While I knew there was a chance of being diverted to a different hospital if ours was full it didn’tΒ occur to me it would actually happen, and we’d made no plansΒ for this eventuality at all.

Needless to say googling the route while actually en route and in labourΒ was a bad idea, as was the fact Misery Guts hadn’t filled up the car and the low fuel warning light flashed intermittently throughout the entire journey. But I digress.

Luckily the last minute change ofΒ hospital was the only part of the plan-that-wasn’t-a-planΒ that didn’t go accordingΒ to plan, if you see what I mean.

When we arrived at the hospital the midwife asked me what my birth plan was, and I told her I wanted to have a water birth.

She looked at me expectantly, waiting for meΒ toΒ say something else,Β and I looked at her blankly.

After a pregnant pause (excuse the pun) she asked me what else I wanted, so I told her that was all. It seemed an awful lot to me, but perhaps the fact I hadn’t arrived armed with a tensΒ machine, an iPhone play list andΒ whale musicΒ meantΒ I was an easy customer for her.

There was a birthing pool free, I was able to labour and giveΒ birth in theΒ water drug-freeΒ as I hopedΒ and I caught my baby and brought her to the surface myself. Which is all I could have asked for.

I still maintain that if I’d writtenΒ down what I wantedΒ it wouldn’t have happened, so I’m glad I left that page blank.

Did you have any unforeseen dramas like being diverted to a different hospital when you gave birth? Or did it all go according to plan?

Linking up with…

Mummy Times Two
Mummascribbles
Run Jump Scrap!
My Petit Canard