Ultimately, the goal during delivery is a healthy mom and healthy baby. So it’s important to keep an open mind when health concerns make a birth plan change, says Dr. Julian Peskin, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Cleveland Clinic in Beachwood, and Dr. Wendy Clinger, a Lake Health gynecologist in Willoughby.
If you don’t want an epidural under any circumstance, but the pain becomes overwhelming, it’s OK to take the epidural, says Peskin. The same goes for a cesarean section.“Some moms think they don’t feel like a real woman if they have a C-section,” he adds. “But that’s simply not true. When a baby is in trouble, a C-section may be the only option.”
When a birth plan is too strict, mom can be left disappointed and feeling like a failure.
“With kids, no matter how hard you try, it’s not going to go by your initial plan,” says Clinger.
