You may know exactly how you want your birth experience to be but that doesn’t mean your midwife or birthing partner will automatically know as well. Your birth plan can be as detailed or as minimal as you want and still ensure that your wishes will be known and followed as best as possible.
The following are examples of the sort of things you might want to include in your birth plan.
Your midwife
Decide how much you want your midwife to be involved in your care and labour. For example, you may just want her to observe and offer encouragement or you may want her to take an active participation. Depending on what you think your midwife’s role is will decide how active you want her to be.
Your labour
Your birth plan is ideal if there are certain things that you really do or do not want to happen during your labour. Like some women, you may have individual preferences totally unique to you, but the following is a list of more general considerations..
- How much do you want to move around? Do you want to be able to have a bath when you want, or move from room to room? Or are you willing to remain on your bed?
- Do you want to be able to eat and drink when you choose? It might be worth listing the sort of snacks you’ll have available.
- Would you rather avoid internal exams? How do you feel about having your waters broken?
- What music have you decided on? Make sure you list what you want and at what stage of your labour you want it.
- Are you using any form of aromatherapy? If so mention what you want, how soon you want it and where it will be.
- If you are using any props, such as a birthing ball or stool, make sure you mention this in your birth plan.
The birth
- Companions. Once you know who you want present at the birth list them in your plan. It would also be good to include plans for children, whether they will be present, who will look after them etc
- Where do you want to give birth? The bedroom, dining room, living room, conservatory? Even though you may be wandering about the house during labour, it’s best to record which room you actually want to give birth in.
- Who will ‘catch’ baby? If you or your partner want to ‘catch’ the baby mention it in your plan.
- Ambience and mood. At the time of your baby’s birth, you might want a certain ambience. Mention if you want the lights dimmed, a certain oil burning or a particular music playing. Also say if you want no voices to be heard at the time of birth.
- If you are keen to avoid an episiotomy, mention it in your birth plan, also mention if you would rather tear than be cut.
- Let your midwife or carer know if you would rather discover your baby’s sex by yourself.
Pain relief
It is very easy, especially towards the end of the second stage of labour, to forget what sort of birth you wanted and demand every form of pain relief imaginable. For this reason many women place great emphasis on pain relief in their birth plan Things to consider are;
- What form of pain relief do you want? Entenox, TENS, movement?
- Do you want to use pethidine or would you rather it wasn’t even brought?
- Do you want to keep your options open?
- Would you rather use alternative forms of pain relief? Mention them here.
The third stage
If you have not given much thought to the third stage of labour don’t worry. Most expectant mums don’t think beyond the safe delivery of their baby. However, it’s worth considering your options for delivering the placenta as it may be too late to request a natural third stage after your baby is born.
- Active – when your midwife will administer syntocinine at the time of birth and cut and clamp the cord immediately
- Active - when syntocinine is administered but the cord isn’t cut and clamped until it has stopped pulsating
- Natural – with no drugs administered but the cord is cut and clamped once t has stopped pulsating
- Natural – with no administration of drugs or assistance until the placenta is fully delivered at which stage the cord can be cut.
It’s also worth mentioning if your birthing companion would like to cut the cordand if you want to keep the placenta.
