by Andrea Updyke posted in Mom Stories

When I was getting ready for the birth of my first son, I wanted to plan ahead as much as possible. I took birth classes, read books and talked to my friends about their experiences. I made a birth plan, hired a doula and settled on my main objective - to avoid Pitocin. I don't know why I narrowed in on that specifically, but I did.
When the time came however, after 26 hours of labor which included 3 hours of pushing, I ended up with a cesarean section. I had been successful in avoiding Pitocin until the very end of active labor, but a c-section" I had NOT planned on that!
As it turns out, in the United States more than 1/3 of women will give birth via cesarean. The way I see it is, it's better to be informed than surprised.
So as you prepare to give birth, here are a few things to keep in mind that will help ease the transition after a c-section.
1) Make a back-up Birth Plan. It's a good idea to have a c-section paragraph in your birth plan, "just in case." If nothing else, you will have to read up a little bit on the possibilities and know your answer before you are asked to fill out 14 forms and sign and date here (and here and here) between contractions. Just sayin'.
2) Buy new underwear! Don't go for anything even remotely feminine either. If you end up with a scar it will be right where most bikini underwear sit and even a lot of the maternity styles. I thought I would just continue to wear my maternity undies bu...