Women love the birth plan concept – it gives us the illusion that we, not our bodies, are in control. But it's hard to be prepared for everything. Just ask Sarah Skofield, mother of three from Bowdoinham, Maine. She was having a planned C-section and thought she knew how everything was going to play out.

"It was a complete shock when the anesthesiologist couldn't get a spinal and told me he needed to use general anesthesia," says Skofield. "I consented and wasn't aware of the birth of my son until I woke up an hour later. My husband had been waiting for me to wake up and he made sure the first thing I saw was our baby. I cried, but not happy tears. I was so confused and in pain. I felt cheated. Things definitely did not go the way I thought they would. It never occurred to me that I might need general anesthesia. I think if I had thought of that possibility, I would have been more prepared and it would have been a little easier."

Elizabeth Thelen, mother of two from Rochester, N.Y., also made plans that didn't turn out exactly the way she wanted them to. "We got the nursery set up, painted and got it all accessorized," says Thelen. "I remember going to the doctor on a Tuesday, and my son was breech. I could feel his head in the middle of my chest. Well, later that week, he turned and broke my water. He was born five weeks early."

Dr. Shelley S. Binkley, a board-certified OB/GYN with 16 years' experience delivering babies and caring for pregnant women in Glenwood Springs, Colo., says that creating a birth plan can be very empowering. "If you're going to develop a birth plan discuss it with your OB provider in the last month of pregnancy, before you actually arrive in labor," Dr. Binkley says. "If you address it ahead of time questions can be answered and you're more likely to make your provider aware of your wishes and align her behavior with your goals."

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