Preparing for Birth: Creating a Birth Plan

Preparing for the birth of your child is a big process, especially if this is your first time. There is a lot you can do to prepare physically and mentally, from getting the nursery ready to kegel exercises to deciding how you want your child to be born.

I will not try to tell you what is the right or wrong way to bring a child into this world. I definitely have opinions about it, but my goal on this blog is not to lecture (with the exception being car seat safety, because some people don't take it seriously enough). I just ask that when you're considering a procedure, whether for yourself or your baby, seriously weigh the positives and the negatives. Something that may seem like an easy way out for you may be harmful to yourself and baby.

Writing a birth plan is an easy way to get everyone on the same page. If you've given birth before, but didn't have a birth plan, you probably spent a lot of time saying over and over again what you did and did not want done. It's so much easier to say "birth plan" during contractions then it is to launch into the full plan. Birth plans are also great if there is a chance your regular OGBYN will not be delivering your child. The practice I went to while pregnant with my son had a rotating hospital schedule. Each doctor would do a 24 hour hospital shift and would take care of any deliveries that came in from that practice during their shift. I had 7 potential doctors who could have delivered Jr., but I got lucky and my OBGYN was scheduled for the day after I went into labor. 

This post will contain some tips on creating a birth plan that easily presents what you want to happen. My next post will illustrate the need to be flexible.

Tips for Creating a Birth Plan

1. Find a check list style birth plan online. This will help expose you to many, if not all, of the options available for many aspects of child birth. I do not recommend handing the check list to your OBGYN after you've gone through it. This is simply helping you to thinking about all aspects of the birth and providing you with an outline for writing your plan. Here are two worksheets, a checklist and what they call a perfect birth exercise. I found this site helpful as well.
2. Do your research. Know why you want things done or not done, including the risks and benefits. It is hard for your nurses or midwife to go to bat for you if you're not really committed to what you've written. Also, knowing the risks and benefits will help with having your OBGYN take you seriously. Here are some links to resources I found helpful: What to Reject When You're Expecting, 10 Decisions for Parents of Newborns and Part 2, and this entire website. Also, take the child birth classes. Have busy schedules? Many hospitals and providers offer a one time Saturday class. Taking the class in the hospital you'll deliver in is great, because then you get a good idea of how things work there and what is available to you with regards to comfort items.
3. Talk to your provider. They know the hospital better than you (unless you work in delivery). Some things you may want to do will not be possible due to hospital regulations or are standard practice. 
4. Be sure to include vital information that doesn't necessarily relate to the birth. I read about a mother-to-be who wrote in her plan about how her husband was diabetic and should he start acting a certain way it meant that he needed to eat because his blood sugar was low. Obviously not essential to the birth, but essential for the staff that would be interacting with him.
5. Use firm language, but still be nice about it. A happy birth experience is built on a partnership between you and the provider. The birth of my son did not go the way I thought it would, but I was at peace with it because I had complete trust in my OBGYN. And he didn't say to me "this is what's going to happen" but instead sat down and talked options with me because he respected me and my wishes.
6. Be. Flexible. You can not have 100% control of what is going to happen. If you're hoping for a vaginal birth, plan for how you would want a c-section to go, because it could happen.

Attached is my birth plan. I reviewed this with my OBGYN so he knew ahead of time how I wanted the birth to proceed and he was able to inform me of hospital policies, which only changed things that are standard practice.

As I mentioned before, the next post on preparing for birth will be about being flexible.