Bridget's Pregnancy Blog

While in the process of making my birth plan, which I discussed in my last post, I have had to think a lot about what kinds of things I want throughout the entire labor and delivery experience.

I’ve mentioned already that I’m not planning on bringing any DVDs to watch during the first stage of labor, but I’ve been contemplating exactly what I want to be doing during early labor.

Usually, the first stage of labor is fairly uneventful. A lot of it seems to be waiting for the cervix to slowly stretch out to a large enough size for the baby to get through, which means having contractions at a steady pace over what could be a really long period of time. Some people go through literally days of first stage labor, and at the very beginning the hospital will even send people home unless they are already having contractions five minutes apart consistently and/or she isn’t five centimeters dilated.

So after thinking about it, I guess I can see why someone would want to bring something to do during that time, because while the contractions will take focus, the four minutes between each one probably get boring pretty quickly.

I’m probably going to bring my ipod with some relaxing music, but I’ll probably spend most of my time chatting with Justin and waiting for things to progress. Maybe a deck of cards will be worth dropping in the “hospital bag.”

Another thing on the list that I’ll be checking off is that I will want the freedom to walk around during labor. I’ll probably want to wander around the halls to help keep my mind busy as my body slowly prepares itself for my baby’s arrival.

I’ll be leaving my trusty laptop at home, but I’ve already warned Justin that I’ll probably be taking over his iphone to log on to Twitter and tweet my progress for everyone following along from the other side of the globe! He’s not too sure of that idea, but I’m kinda looking forward to tweeting my progress.

In other aspects of early labor, I’m still a little undecided about whether or not there’s anything else I will want. I’m a little worried about something I learned recently- that most hospitals won’t let you eat anything once you’ve checked in for labor. All most women are allowed to have is ice chips! If I end up having a long labor, I’m not sure how I’ll survive on just ice chips during the hard work part ahead! So I think I might be requesting being allowed to have a little fruit or something light during early labor (or making sure I’m well-fed before I head to the hospital!)

So now I think I’ve got most of what I want during early labor figured out. Only nine more pages of birth plan to go!