A birth plan is a list your preferences for your delivery team.
Involve your partner and support people who will be at your delivery (partner, doula, family members, friends) to brainstorm ideas on what you want and don’t want. Write your birth plan as short or as long as you want it to be. I’ve seen one page birth plans to five page ones.
It can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.
One of the most interesting things I’ve seen on a birth plan is someone wanted me to take a piece of gauze, swab around her vagina, and then wipe it on her baby right after birth.
She was having a c-section and wanted to introduce her vaginal flora to her baby since he was not being delivered through that route. It’s called vaginal seeding, yes, it’s a thing.
You do you.
Obviously you can put whatever you want on your birth plan, but keep in mind that each facility, provider, and nurse is different. What would you do if a patient asked you to wipe her vagina juices onto her baby?
Or maybe you want intermittent and wireless monitoring or want to labor in the tub, or both? Make sure your facility has your desired options available to you.
1. Plans for pain.
Unmedicated or medicated? What this means is, do you want pain medicine or not?
There are a lot of unmedicated options to choose from, some of which you might have not even thought about. For example, have you heard of using a hair comb to cope with pain? Gripping the comb helps to distract from the pains of contractions. I once saw a patient use this technique with a hair brush.
Some people use affirmation cards. Other people play very loud music with lots of swearing. Whatever works, right?
Are you wanting to labor in a tub? This is not the same as giving birth in the tub, or a water birth. Remember, ask your provider and facility if laboring and giving birth (if this is what you want) is an option for you.
Side note. Do not show up to the hospital wanting to have a water birth and then realize that having a water birth is against their policy. You cannot be mad at them if that wasn’t even an option for you in the first place.
Many people know about epidurals for labor pain, but it’s not your only option for pain medication. Depending on what facility you choose to deliver at there may be IV medications, IM medications (shots), nitrous gas, and topical creams.
2. Plans for your placenta.
Encapsulate? Bury? Donate? Or just throw away? What do you plan to do with the tree of life, otherwise known as the placenta?
Your provider will likely toss it in a medical waste bin if you don’t specify what you want to do with it. Or, the placenta may be sent to lab or pathology for closer examination.
If you decide to keep it for encapsulation or burying, bring proper supplies with you (like a cooler) to the birthing facility to store it or have someone pick it up.
Keep in mind that if you are planning to encapsulate and your placenta goes to lab or path, you must do your own due diligence on the safety of it afterward. The placenta could have been in contact with solutions that may make it unsafe for consumption.
3. Plans for the umbilical cord.
Who’s cutting the cord?
In my experience the partner usually cuts it, but sometimes they choose not to (scared of blood, scared of hurting the baby, scared of hurting the patient, or just scared in general. There are no nerve endings the cord, by the way). Or maybe you want to cut the umbilical cord yourself? If none of you want to then the staff does it for you. If you’ve ever cut an umbilical cord before, you’ll know that it’s pretty squishy! It’ll take a couple cuts with the scissors. What’s left is called a stump. Maybe because it was cut down from a tree (of life?) … the placenta?
What will you do with the cord blood?
Are you wanting to delay cord clamping so that your baby can get the cord blood? If you do, for how long? At least 30 to 60 seconds is needed for your baby to benefit from the cord blood, but if you want a different amount of time just let your provider know.
You can also donate the cord blood so other people can benefit from the stem cells. This can either be done for private banking or public. The public option is free to participate in whereas private is not.
4. Plans for feeding.
Will you breast/chest feed? I say chest feed because I acknowledge that not everyone who has had a baby feeds from their breasts.
Formula feed?
What about using donor milk? Not all facilities offer donor milk. If you’re getting weirded out by the idea of donor milk, just think about all the times you’ve drank milk. Was the cow’s milk made for you, or a baby cow?
5. Plans for baby medications and immunizations.
The medications that will be offered to your baby are eye antibiotic ointment, a vitamin K shot , and a hepatitis b vaccine shot.
The pediatrician will recommend these to prevent eye infection, excessive bleeding, and protection from hepatitis b. If you don’t want these for your baby you may be asked to sign refusal forms.
There are many other wishes you can put on your birth plan. Your birth plan must communicate your plans for pain, placenta, umbilical cord, feeding, and baby medicines.
If you ever had a birth plan, what are other important items to list? I have several examples in my shop to give you some ideas.
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