Birth plans are a great tool for beginning conversations about how you would like to give birth and what your priorities are. You can use your birth plan as a guide for asking open ended questions, to find out about your care provider's birth philosophy, and what kinds of protocols your care provider is bound by in their practice. These are incredibly important points and birth plans are perfect for opening up the conversation and really getting a feel for how your care provider will be during your birth. You might be suprised!
Birth plans are also great for the birthing room. Typically, if you are birthing in the hospital, you likely will not be attended by your physician, but by a physician that rotates an on-call schedule with your physician. Having a birth plan in your file is helpful for the on call physician and for the nurses who are on staff during your birth.
However, there are some negative aspects of birth plans to keep in mind. The main one is that hospital staff have come to view birth plans with scrutiny. Often, when someone comes into the hospital with a birthing plan staff automatically label her as a c-section birth. This is because of a misunderstanding both from the birthing woman and the hospital staff. Birthing mothers who create birth plans as a strict plan to follow for their births are not being flexible to the process of labor and the many ways it can unfold. Hospital staff are assuming that all women who have birth plans are strict and inflexible so that when something diverges from a woman's birth plan, they assume she will give up.
With this in mind, I have some suggestions about how to create your birth plan.
1.) Your birth plan should only be one page.
2.) Create an opening paragraph that speaks to your understanding of the process of birth as fluid and flexible and that this plan is only a list of your priorities for your birth.
3.) Create a heading for "First Stage" and create a bulletted list of items during this stage that are important for you. For example, you might say that you don't want medications offered, and that you will ask for them if you want them. Or, you could say that you would like to use a heplock instead of the full IV.
4.) Create a heading for "Second Stage". THis is when you are fully dilated and ready to push. You might specify that you prefer to push in your position of choice until your baby is born, or that you would rather tear than have an episiotomy.
5.) Create a heading for "Third Stage". THis is after your baby is born until the placenta is out, but can also mean the hour or so after you give birth. You might state that you would like to put off all procedures to breastfeed and be skin to skin with baby in this section.
Your birth plan should look something like this:
Opening paragraph
First stage
Second Stage
Third Stage
The main idea is to make it clear to staff that you have educated yourself and have an understanding of how birth can unfold, and to keep the plan to only your most important priorities. One page of bulletted points is quick and easy to read and almost guarantees that everyone will take the mintue or so to look it over.
If you have more questions about how to advocate for the items on your birth plan. Contact me and/or make a consultation appointment.
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