Why planning for your birth should be up there with planning for your wedding!

Lauren Derret - 9 Mar 16

So, you’re getting married! Excitement is high and your coffee table is already overloaded with wedding magazines. You’ve got the day already planned in your head, now for the real planning. Some women spend years planning for this one day, it’s huge, it’s massive, it’s not gonna happen again, it’s worth planning for.

So many things to think about, so many things to research. You’ve been dreaming of this day for years and you know that this one event will change you from singleton to wife. In the matter of hours your role changes and you want to know that come that time, everything that you hoped and preyed for would come into fruition. So that you look back on the day with sound, fluffy memories.

You’re not scared of planning, there’s no of fear jinxing things, you are well aware that factors out of your control could still play out. It may rain, someone from the wedding party may get sick (or like me on my wedding day, you may get sick), your DJ may get stuck in traffic or your 6 tier show stopper of a cake doesn’t actually look much like the picture you had in your head!

But, even knowing all of this, we plan, we prepare, we get the best supporters/suppliers around us in a hope that it all goes without a hitch on our one time only (again , unless you’re me and are 3rd time in) life changing event. And lets not forget the finical commitment to ensure it’s just as you hoped it would be. Our wedding days can add up to an infinite amount but the current average of what a couple will happily spend on their wedding day racks up to a staggering £20,500!!! People get into debt so desperate are they for this one day to be all they had hoped.

So then it makes sense that you would plan for your birth with the same gusto wouldn’t it? (although I’d hold back on a white dress, birth can get mucky).

Like your wedding before, again,  you’ve been dreaming of this birth for years and you know that this one event will change you from you as you know you to you becoming a mother. In the matter of hours your role changes and you want to know that come that time, everything that you hoped and preyed for would come into fruition. So that you look back on the day with sound, fluffy memories.

We should consider it as one of the most important days of not only our lives, but that of our new found family, our partners and our baby’s. And if your birth strays from your plan, that’s ok, like the wedding plans, some things in life are out of our control, but doesn’t it always feel better that we had at least we done our very best to ensure and work towards the very best scenario?

And here’s how planning for our wedding is so much like planning for our birth…..

What sort of venue would you like? Home, Birthing Centre, Hospital, Private Hospital?

What sort of food would you like? Fruit, Power Bars, Jelly Babies, Hotel Chocolat Sleekster Selection?

Who will you be inviting? Partner, Mum, Doula, Independent Midwife?

What treatments will you have leading up to your day? Hypnobirthing, Reiki, Yoga, Positive Birth Group, NCT, Hospital ante-natal classes?

What sort of entertainment do you want? Your own personal playlist? A Hypnobithing MP3, the radio?

And all the million other things to think about when you’re planning for such a special event. But, plan you should. And know that it’s highly unlikely it’ll cost anywhere near the wedding day you’ve invested so heavily in, in the hope that it all goes to plan. Instead of a marriage certificate and a photo booth scrap book, after this event you’ll have a lifetime of the little human that you both made.

Make sure that the memories made on that day are good ones, this birth will stay with you in your bones, for the whole of your life.

Lauren Derret

I’m Lauren, mum of 4 humans, each with their very own birth story. Red wine drinker, keen blogger, trash tv watcher and pretty hard core potty mouth! But, with a good heart and a passion for setting lovely women like you onto a path towards a positive birthing experience, and we’ll have fun doing it; always a bonus! I teach The Wise Hippo Birthing Programme and am a Doula Uk recognised Doula

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