A Birth Plan - How do you plan a birth?
A birth plan is actually an outline of your expectations provided by you to the healthcare professionals who will attend you during your labor and who will attend your infant after birth. Birth plans should be simple and straight forward and are easier for the healthcare providers to follow when kept to one page. It is a good idea to put together a birth plan for your doctor or midwife and a different plan for the nurses at the hospital. Your doctor or midwife should put your birth plan in his/her records, and discuss it with you throughout your visits with him/her; and the nurses plan can be given to the nursing staff when you pre-register at the birth center.
“There are too many unknowns, too many variables, to make predictions about how exactly your labor will go. Women can’t possibly know whether they’re going to have a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am six-hour labor or a grueling forty-hour labor affair with relentless back pain. The long menu of unknowns facing each woman at the end of her pregnancy makes planning ludicrous.” (Peggy Vincent, Baby Catcher)
It is important to note that birth is not some sort of family event that can be “planned” down to the last detail; there are too many variables and unknown factors. A woman can not know whether she is going to have a wild two hour precipitous labor or a long 32 hour marathon. Some women think that a birth plan is a description of their ideal birth, the birth they want. This type of planning most often leads to disappointed expectations. As a doula I have learned that when it’s over and done with there isn’t a mom who isn’t surprised by some part of her labor or birth, no matter how many times she does it. In fact I think the more babies a woman has the more she approaches labor with the nervous realization that she doesn’t know what to expect.
Having your baby your way is mainly a matter of putting together the right ingredients and trusting the recipe to turn out as it should, 95% of the time it will. The birth plan is one of those ingredients.
Labor and Birth:
· I expect to have a labor free of drugs and medical interventions.
· I expect the nursing staff to be respectful of me by not offering drugs as pain relief, but rather physical and emotional support would be appreciated.
· I expect that I will have freedom of movement during my labor and that my time on the EFM will be minimal.
· I will be accompanied in labor by my husband, mother, sister, and doula.
· I expect to use many different labor positions and request the use of the birth ball and birth stool during my labor.
· I expect to use a warm bath as a coping measure during active labor and transition.
· I expect to be free to choose which position I am in when I deliver my baby.
Post-partum:
· I expect to hold my baby after birth for as long as I like free of interruptions.
· I expect there to be minimal staff in the room during and after delivery and that those who are there respect my family by keeping the mood quiet and peaceful.
· I expect the lights to be dim when the baby is born.
· The baby care can wait for several hours while I and my family become acquainted with our new baby.
A birth plan is actually an outline of your expectations provided by you to the healthcare professionals who will attend you during your labor and who will attend your infant after birth. Birth plans should be simple and straight forward and are easier for the healthcare providers to follow when kept to one page. It is a good idea to put together a birth plan for your doctor or midwife and a different plan for the nurses at the hospital. Your doctor or midwife should put your birth plan in his/her records, and discuss it with you throughout your visits with him/her; and the nurses plan can be given to the nursing staff when you pre-register at the birth center.
“There are too many unknowns, too many variables, to make predictions about how exactly your labor will go. Women can’t possibly know whether they’re going to have a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am six-hour labor or a grueling forty-hour labor affair with relentless back pain. The long menu of unknowns facing each woman at the end of her pregnancy makes planning ludicrous.” (Peggy Vincent, Baby Catcher)
It is important to note that birth is not some sort of family event that can be “planned” down to the last detail; there are too many variables and unknown factors. A woman can not know whether she is going to have a wild two hour precipitous labor or a long 32 hour marathon. Some women think that a birth plan is a description of their ideal birth, the birth they want. This type of planning most often leads to disappointed expectations. As a doula I have learned that when it’s over and done with there isn’t a mom who isn’t surprised by some part of her labor or birth, no matter how many times she does it. In fact I think the more babies a woman has the more she approaches labor with the nervous realization that she doesn’t know what to expect.
Having your baby your way is mainly a matter of putting together the right ingredients and trusting the recipe to turn out as it should, 95% of the time it will. The birth plan is one of those ingredients.
Labor and Birth:
· I expect to have a labor free of drugs and medical interventions.
· I expect the nursing staff to be respectful of me by not offering drugs as pain relief, but rather physical and emotional support would be appreciated.
· I expect that I will have freedom of movement during my labor and that my time on the EFM will be minimal.
· I will be accompanied in labor by my husband, mother, sister, and doula.
· I expect to use many different labor positions and request the use of the birth ball and birth stool during my labor.
· I expect to use a warm bath as a coping measure during active labor and transition.
· I expect to be free to choose which position I am in when I deliver my baby.
Post-partum:
· I expect to hold my baby after birth for as long as I like free of interruptions.
· I expect there to be minimal staff in the room during and after delivery and that those who are there respect my family by keeping the mood quiet and peaceful.
· I expect the lights to be dim when the baby is born.
· The baby care can wait for several hours while I and my family become acquainted with our new baby.
