Re-thinking the birth plan

I had some disappointing news from the midwife at my last checkup. Because my BMI is higher than it should be I won't be able to have my baby in the Birthing Centre as I'd planned, I'll have to go to the regular Delivery Suite. I am only just over the limit by one point so I kind of feel like it's unfair. It's a new hospital policy they have because of an incident they had recently where a very obese woman had complications during her labour and had trouble being transferred because of her weight. I'm not that heavy and I haven't gained a hideous amount of weight during my pregnancy so again I feel it's unfair, but I do also understand that they have to have one rule for everyone.

I'm annoyed at myself for being overweight too. I was somewhere in the high 160s before I got pregnant. Here they take your height and weight readings and calculate your BMI at the start of your pregnancy and then don't weigh you during pregnancy. I asked my GP why and she explained it can cause women to worry too much about gaining weight and they shouldn't during pregnancy, so it's to avoid people obsessing about it. She said as long as you are eating healthy for one and not gaining too much weight then they don't want us to worry about the numbers. That made sense to me and I was grateful for it but now I wonder if they did things differently would I not be in this situation.

After the initial disappointment I'm doing fine about it. I can still have the active, midwife-led birth that I want without medical intervention unless required, but if I do decide to ask for an epidural I won't need to be transferred. Lately I've been worrying a little about labour and getting more and more nervous so maybe it's a bit of a blessing in disguise.

That was the first antenatal appointment I've had where I came away not feeling good and positive. This midwife was scary! She also quizzed me on the signs of labour in a kind of aggressive and teachery way and then sent me home with reading material. It felt like school! I answered her questions right though, so I guess I've been paying attention. And then when I got home I asked Hubby and did even better than me, having memorised how frequent and regular contractions should be (I just vaguely said regular and frequent!), so I am pretty impressed with him right now!