How do I get my boyfriend to be more supportive of my birth plan?

your birth plan is all up to you, and what you want. it does not require anyone else's opinion. you are the one carrying the baby, and giving birth. he will just stand there on the sidelines. tell him this! trust me, sweetie, you want an epidural. you won't feel a thing but pressure if you have one. do you honestly want to give birth the old-fashioned way without drugs?  in my mind, they give epidurals for a reason, and i will happily take mine once again! i'm 10 weeks along with my second. i never made a birth plan with my first, and don't plan on doing it with the second, either. yes, it takes two to tango, but you are the one who is pregnant, not him! if men had to carry children, instead of women, the world's population would quickly diminish.

Have you asked him WHY he's so dead-set on you having the epidural?  Talk to him and try to get him to open up about his rationale - it may be based on fear for the pain you're going to be in, it may be that he's heard some scary things about other things you've suggested.  His reasoning might be completely irrational, or it could be something that makes total sense.  But you won't know how to change his mind or if it's even possible, if you don't know why he is so insistent. 

An epidural is either all in or all out. I had my first with the epidural, and my second with out (not my choice, we arrived too late in labor to get it) and they both had their advantages. Make sure you make up your mind before it's  too late. Once you reach 7cm dialated they will no longer do it, no matter how much you want it. I will say it was amazing to be able to walk around and take care of stuff. Explain to him the best you can, but labor is intense and you should not be taking care of his needs while you going through this. It may seem mean to ignore his requests but labor should be about your needs, not his. I really hope you get everything worked out.

You don't need an epidural.  Those affect the baby and make them score lower on the apgar test. It also makes it harder for them to breast feed right after they're born, which is very important if you plan to breast feed.  I didn't have an epidural, and I experienced very little pain during labor and birth.  I actually slept through most of it.  I'd wake up for a second when I had a contraction, say "ow" and then immediately fall back to sleep.  Suddenly, I woke up and I could feel her head coming out of me and I screamed at her father to run and find the midwife before she fell out on the floor.  The midwife came running in and immediately had my legs up, telling me to push.  Two pushes, and she was out and screaming her little head off.  I was extremely tired, but the only real pain I felt only lasted a split second when I passed her shoulders and she ripped me.  But they give pain medicine to take home that completely takes away any pain you'll feel.  I only took it for one day after I went home.  Tell your bf about it, I know from experience that you don't need drugs, or a hospital, or even a doctor.  I wanted a waterbirth, but I was at risk for infection since my water had been broken for 4 days and I didn't know it, so I had her in bed.  She's perfectly healthy and so am I.  The only prob I had was that I couldn't sit still long enough to heal.  I kept hurting myself cuz I was trying to clean and work in my garden.

My mother had me without drugs, quite by accident. She was in labor overnight and the nurses forgot to check her and by the time it was 7am my mom told my dad, I think the baby is coming. He ran to get a nurse and sure enough she was fully dialated and I was born at 7:55am after a few pushes. My mom insists it wasn't that bad, but my mom is also a woman who rarely complains. She also said labor was not that painful for her. I recommened watching "The Business of Being Born". It is a very good documentary about home and naturaly birth. I was never in the market for either of these, but it was interesting and inspiring to see other women giving birth naturally.

I was hoping for this easy of a birth but it was not to be. I was 4 cm dilated when I showed up to be induced but my contractions were irregular so they broke my water and I dialted to 5cm. I then had an epidural (because that was MY birth plan!) and they gave me some pitocin and I dilated to 10cm in about 6 hours. I pushed for almost 5 hours with no progress. She had her arm up over her head and she wouldn't drop down any further. After 4 hours of pushing I looked at the nurse and said, could I please have that c-section? They had mentioned it to me after 1 1/2 hours of pushing because baby was so big and STUCk and I said no, I want to do this vaginally. A c-section was not what I wanted! But in the end, i had