Who is the smartest person in the room during labor?
You just spent 9 months growing your baby and you are ready for the big day. You have your support person or people and the healthcare professionals around you. Who is the smartest person in the room?
The answer to the trick question is…. your baby. Your baby technically isn’t in the room, they are still inside you. But they know what they need to enter this world. If you listen to them, and I mean, truly listen to them, they will tell you what they need. Sometimes they need help to enter the world, sometimes they just need patience, sometimes they have everything they need and they are ready quicker than you would have guessed.
You just spent 9 months (hopefully) with them. You are the second smartest person in the room. You know what they need and you know what you need to help them. But, sometimes in the moment you don’t know what you need or what they need because, well…. pain, emotions, fatigue, etc. That is why having a plan and having someone there to be your advocate and remind you what you want and know is important.
Birth plans are important AND knowing that it might not go as planned on your birth plan is also important. However, make sure that if your birth is different than your birth plan, it is because your baby was telling you and your healthcare team that it needs to be a different way; not because someone external decides that it should be a different way to fit their plan.
Unfortunately, I did not know when I was pregnant with my son that he was the smartest person in the room. I listened to an OB, who I was meeting for the first time, not to my son or to my intuition. This turned my home birth into an “emergency” c-section. It might have been necessary, or it might not have been, I will never know. Luckily, someone told me this during my second pregnancy so I was able to trust my body and my baby and had a successful VBAC that ended up being unassisted at home!
Whatever the outcome of your birth, know that your baby is the smartest person in the room AND know that if their plan is not the same as yours, there might be a reason.
