Pregnancy & Baby 

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Anastasia’s pregnancy diary – weeks 28–30

Anastasia lives in London with her husband, Nick. They’ve been married for three years and are expecting their first baby

Knowing too much

Starting to think about the birth a lot these days. I’ve progressed beyond an obsession with my changing body and am beginning to read a lot about the reality of D-day (or rather B-day). Friends who have had children tell me that no matter what I expect to happen, I’ll definitely be surprised by the reality of the experience so I shouldn’t make too many plans or have expectations that the birth will go a certain way. This is a very difficult concept to apply to the already abstract idea of the childbirth experience. How else can I prepare mentally for it without creating a set of very specific expectations? How can I read about the different ‘methods’ and not choose those that I think will suit me? What is a birth plan if it’s not, well, a birth plan? Is the answer really to simply ‘let go’ and see what happens? Does-not-compute.

I am definitely in a state of information overload

I read something that I really wish I hadn’t. I read that having an epidural increases your chances of having a whole catalogue of intervention, including a Caesarean. I read this once and conveniently blocked it out. I read it somewhere else and had to acknowledge that there might be some truth to this theory. And then I went on a rampage of research and, to my dismay, discovered that it’s true. Apparently, the epidural is the first step in a long line of possible medical interventions based on the fact that it slows labour, drops your blood pressure, forces you to go on a drip and use a catheter to empty your bladder. The fact that you can feel nothing ‘down there’ means it’s much harder to push which, in turn, means they often have to haul out the old ventouse (vacuum extractor) or forceps. Worst case, the baby’s ‘stuck’ and in distress from such a long pushing process (second stage) and out comes the scalpel.

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