As the big day for you to meet your new bundle of joy approaches, you may find yourself getting ready. Some decorate the nursery, some brainstorm possible names, and others go into full blown nesting mode.
You may also be preparing for your birth experience.
What is a birth plan?
A birth plan is a document where you write out your birth preferences for your labor and delivery experience. You can give it to your healthcare provider at one of your appointments in advance.
You can also hang it on your door if you are giving birth in a hospital so that your delivery nurse is aware of your birth wishes.
This is a good way to gently let everyone know of your delivery preferences, without feeling like you’re demanding anything.
I also verbally went through my birth plan with my husband and my doula prior to going into labor.
Should you create a birth plan?
Whether you are a first time mom or a seasoned pro, I HIGHLY encourage all mamas to make birth plans.
Birth is one of the biggest moments of your life that you only get to do a handful of times. You deserve for the experience to play out how you envision it in your mind.
You also can’t expect other people to know what you’re thinking and what you want unless you tell them.
This is especially true if you want a natural, unmedicated birth in a heavily medicated setting like a hospital. They may want to treat you one way, while you may want to be treated completely differently.
You can NOT just wing it. Just like how we’re always emphasizing SMART goals, I want you to go in having done your homework.
For example, instead of saying “Oh I’m going to try to do it naturally”, you can say “I am going to achieve a natural birth by utilizing breathing techniques I’ve practiced, having my husband apply counterpressure, and switching positions frequently to encourage the baby to come down”.
See how different that sounds?
And yes, birth is unpredictable. You may have to throw everything out the window.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to advocate for yourself as much as you can.
What should I include in my birth plan?
Your birth plan can be as simple or as detailed as you want to make it.
Generally, a birth plan will include who is delivering your baby, where you’re delivering, the people on your birth team, and interventions you want or wish to decline for both you and baby.
Who would I like to deliver my baby?
This is going to be one of the first decisions you make after you find out you’re expecting. It is also arguably the most important decision you make.
You can choose an OB/GYN to deliver your baby or a midwife. Both are trained medical professionals to help you during the labor, delivery and postpartum process.
Where would I like to give birth?
When people think of labor and delivery, they automatically assume that it takes place in a hospital.
However, there are plenty of other places to give birth. If you are having a healthy pregnancy and are looking to deliver without pain medication, a hospital may not be the best choice for you.
Rates of epidural use, C-sections, and episiotomies vary greatly from hospital to hospital. For example, the hospital that my brother was born in has an episiotomy rate of 40%. For reference, the recommended rate by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology is 5%.
Therefore, you’ll want to look at your local hospitals and find out what their rates are for each procedure. Ask what they consider an “emergency C-section” to be, and how often it happens.
If they aren’t transparent with you, or avoid answering the question, pick a different hospital!
You may also consider looking into alternative places to give birth, such as a birth center or even your own home if you are really trying to commit to a natural birth.
In fact, a home birth can be equally as safe, if not more so as long as your pregnancy isn’t categorized as high risk.
What are the different ways I can give birth?
Vaginal
Vaginal births are when you push your baby through the birth canal and out of your vagina.
Cesarean section
Cesarean birth is when a baby is delivered via a medical procedure where an incision is made through the mother’s abdomen.
Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC)
A VBAC is when you deliver vaginally after delivering via C-section in a previous pregnancy. Studies have shown that 60-80% of women who attempt a VBAC are successful.
Water Birth
A water birth is when you deliver your baby in a tub of water. Water is a great natural pain reliever during labor, and is getting increasingly more popular in hospitals with the increased demand.
How can I manage my labor pain?
When making your birth plan you’ll want to think about pain management techniques.
Medicated Options
There are three types of epidurals that you can get for pain relief.
- Classic continuous epidural: the catheter will stay in your body throughout your labor for continuous administration. It will block out sensation to the lower half of your body and you will be unable to move.
- Spinal injection: a single dose of medication will be administered into the spine. This can wear off quicker than the continuous or walking options.
- Walking epidural: combination of the classic and spinal injection where you are given a lower dose of medication that can be continuous. This option allows mama to still feel some sensations while also relieving the pain. Note that despite it being called a walking epidural, you will probably not be able to walk.
Another option outside of the epidural is nitrous oxide that you can inhale.
Non-Medicated Options
There are many different non-medicated options you can try during labor for pain relief. This includes:
- Water immersion
- Chiropractic care
- Acupuncture/ acupressure
- Breathing exercises
- Massages
- Meditation
- Reflexology
- Belly binding
- Aromatherapy
- Heat or cold packs
- Birthing balls
- Counterpressure
- TENS machines
- Music
Who is allowed in the room with me?
You’ll want to surround yourself with people who are going to encourage you and give you the strength you need to keep going.
My birth team consisted of my husband and my doula, and they were exactly the people I needed.
Brainstorm who you’ll want in the room with you, and talk to those people about their roles as your birth partner.
There may be people who are not meant to be in that room. For example, your mom might expect to be in there with you, but she has been pushing you to get the epidural. If you want an unmedicated birth, having her in there may not be the best idea.
Medical interventions during labor
You have the option to decline interventions. For example, you can choose to have intermittent fetal monitoring instead of continuous. You can also decline getting your water broken artificially.
Delivery decisions
You can have your partner be as involved as you’d like. Depending on where you deliver, you can have your partner catch the baby, be in the tub with you, and ask for them to cut the umbilical cord. You can also ask that your partner do skin to skin if you aren’t able to in the event of a C-section.
Newborn care
Shots, circumcisions, eye ointment, blood banking, and placenta encapsulations are all decisions you will want to discuss with your partner prior to your due date that you can include in your birth plan.
Other things to consider
Your birth plan should include when you plan to go to your location to give birth. Do you want to labor at home as much as possible, or leave when contractions first start happening?
Some mamas live a ways away from their birth location, and will have to plan accordingly.
You’ll also have to gather a hospital bag of essentials for the potential of staying overnight. And if you have other children, you may want to include who will be watching them if you have to go to the hospital.
Postpartum plan
In the postpartum section of your plan, you’ll want to include how you can be supported as you recover from your birth.
Maybe your family and friends will come over to help. Or, you can hire a postpartum doula to assist with simple chores.
A good idea that I’ve seen some moms do is make big batches of food to freeze during their third trimester so that they have dinners ready to go.
My Birth Plan
I’ve shared my birth story on the blog (which you can read here), but I actually had a lot of trouble coming up with a birth plan. Since I’ve never given birth before, it was kind of hard to determine what I would like come showtime.
All I knew for sure were the interventions I didn’t want, and from there I just went off of things I generally like/don’t like. I also knew that I had to keep an open mind to other possibilities, but I was going to stick to my plan as much as I could.
This was my natural birth plan template:
Prenatal:
- Yes to sonograms
- No to glucola. I opted for two weeks of glucose monitoring. More on the glucose tolerance test here.
- Yes to membrane sweeps
- Informed consent and explanations on everything
Labor/Delivery:
- Labor at home as much as possible
- Don’t touch me (I don’t normally like to be touched)
- Aromatherapy
- Dim lights
- Water immersion
- Eat/drink if labor allows
- No episiotomy
- No pain medications (read more about medicated and unmedicated birth here)
- No continuous fetal monitoring (which I wouldn’t have since I chose a birth center)
- Vaginal delivery
Postpartum Care:
- Delayed cord clamping
- Latching assistance as soon as possible
- No eye ointment
- No Hep B
- No Vitamin K
- No circumcision
- No stitches
- Save the placenta
So, as you can see, I really just covered the basics of what I knew I absolutely wanted and what I absolutely didn’t.
Conclusion
The most important thing is that you have a healthy baby. But, what I would argue is equally as important is that you walk into motherhood confident.
The best way to do that is to prepare yourself and your team as best as you can. You want your delivery room to be filled with people who are knowledgeable in the ways that they can support you.
Download my FREE Birth Plan Checklist below that you can fill out to give to your care providers in minutes!
Now I want to hear from you!
Did you write a birth plan?
How did things play out for you?
Let me know by leaving me a comment down below!
Sources:
https://utswmed.org/medblog/vbac/
