Terrified - need advise
Hi I am new here am just looking for some advise and support. I am 26 weeks pregnant with my first child and I am terrifed about the labour already!! I cant enjoy my pregnancy due to this and it getting me down. I suffer with anxiety and this isn't helping with my panic. Also I have two options for where I can give birth and due to me being worried about it it isn't helping me. There is a Birthing Centre near where I live thats meant to be like a spa and not a hospital. Its run by midwifes so there are no doctors there and therefore not all pain relief is on offer. Or I can go to the hospital which obviously has all the options for pain relief etc. At the start of my pregnancy I had in my head i would like to try and give birth at the Birthing Centre in the pool and was pretty confident about it but since i have told people i'm pregnant everyone has a horror story to tell me and I feel really unprepared and out of control. Thanks in advance for any advise/help you can give me and I apologies for the long post 
xx
Replies
I was exactly the same, I was absolutely terrified of giving birth and all it entails. I also suffered from anxiety and have a severe fear of needles so the thought of a cannula made me feel sick. I purposely didn't make a birth plan as if I had done so I would have been hell bent on sticking to it regardless. I just had to accept that unfortunately birth is the one thing that I would never be able to control completely.
When it actually came to having my son I found that it is in fact a natural instinctive thing. My body just knew what it needed to do and got on with it.
My advice would be to not listen to all the horror stories (hard I know) for every bad experience there are hundreds of women who have an uneventful birth.
I would really just do what feels right. Whichever you choose now can always be changed at a later date.
Maybe you could arrange a visit to the midwife led centre. You could ask what their procedures are if things start to look like a Dr is needed. Most have some sort of plan in place for transfer to the hospital if needed.
You could also arrange a visit to the hospital maternity unit too, just because you give birth in hospital doesn't mean you have to have a very 'medical intrusive' birth.
If you want to chat more feel free to pm me and I hope my post has helped a little
Thank you for your reply 😀 It really helps hearing advice especially as you have anxiety too. I had my heart set on the birthing centre so your advice has really helped and made me feel a little better about staying with that option xx