1. Skip to navigation
  2. Skip to content
  3. Skip to sidebar

Topics:

Oddball labours

Despite modern advances, birth remains a highly unpredictable event. How to prepare? Do your homework, then expect the unexpected

By
//
Originally published in Today's Parent December 2004

Like all expecting couples, Claire Matthews and Edwin Hubert anticipated the arrival of their first child with a mixture of exhilaration and fear. And, like others, the Victoria, BC pair diligently enrolled in prenatal classes, eager to decode the mysteries of labour and delivery.

Across the country in Orangeville, ON, first-time parents-to-be Andrew and Claire Morris felt and did the same. They too hoped their baby’s entree into the world would be smooth and textbook perfect. Both couples created birth plans outlining their desires for as natural and non-invasive deliveries as possible.

Both couples’ stories have happy endings. Claire and Andrew Morris have a healthy nine-month-old girl; and Matthews and Hubert have a thriving four-year-old girl and a 17-month-old boy.

However, these parents’ adventures in the delivery room were not what they were prepared for. Given what happened, it’s hard to know how they could have prepared.

As Scottish poet Robbie Burns said, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

Subscribe to Today's Parent for just $14.95* That's only $1.25 an issue!

May We Also Suggest...

What do you think?