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Wish We'd Known: 14 Things No One Told Us About Labor

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Jenna McCarthy on Mar 24, 2011 at 4:01PM

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Wish We'd Known: 14 Things No One Told Us About Labor

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Your "Birth Plan" Will be a Joke

Pregnancy books, prenatal class instructors and helpful pregnancy websites will tell you to create one of these, so you will. "I'd like soft music playing in the background, and the opportunity to get up and walk about or bounce on my birthing ball," you'll write. "And I do not want an episiotomy!" In reality, your medical team -- whose job is to do whatever is best for you and your baby -- might simply make those decisions for you. While it may make you feel good to put your preferences down on paper, your birth plan won't have a whole lot of influence on what's going to go down in that delivery room.

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