Writing a birth plan

A birth plan is a good way to ensure that you are prepared for labour and more importantly that your midwife or doctor knows your preferences for the labour. A birth plan however is NOT a list of how things will go, in fact unless you are very lucky you birth plan will be changed and adapted to fit the needs of your labour as it progresses. When you start to think about the birth you would like the most important thing to remember is that the birth in itself is simply a means to an end (the end being the safe delivery of a healthy baby) there are no good births or bad births and there are certainly no rules on what should happen during your delivery.

The first thing to bear in mind when writing your birth plan is to be flexible and think of scenarios other than the ideal one. For example if you plan a home birth, also include in your birth plan you wishes and plans for a hospital birth so that you won’t feel completely unprepared if you need to be transferred during your labour or if you end up having to deliver in a hospital.

Ok the first thing most people will need to write down is who is going to be at their side during the labour. For many women this will be their partner but for others it could be a friend or relative. You can write this down for the midwife to know both who is there and also in some circumstances who shouldn’t be there, if you have a pushy mother for example you can have the hospital turn her away rather than you!. As well as the basics of who it is you can also specify just what you want him or her to be present through, for example you could ask that they leave the room for the actually delivery (i.e. pushing part) or that they do not accompany you if you need a c-section, the details are up to you.

This is the part of your labour you will probably give most thought, some women go through pregnancy planning no pain relief and others go through pregnancy planning as much pain relief as is possible. The truth is though that it completely depends on how it goes on the day – if your labour is 3 hours long then you might manage of gas and air but if your labour ends up being 24 hours long then you might need an epidural or whatever you midwife can offer. For this part of your birth plan it is best to make a few choices for example

“ideally i would prefer to stick to gas and air with a tens machine for pain relief but if the labour is complicated or long I would like the option of extra pain relief”.

If you are dead set on one type of birth for example if you would not like to consider pain relief at all you can write this here and ask your midwife to encourage you NOT to take pain relief during labour even if you want it at the time!

“I would like as natural a birth as possible and would like to have as little pain relief as i can manage, I would prefer to try other pain relief methods such as movement, water and relaxation and resort to artificial pain relief only as an absolute last resort”.

For most women their babies will be born on a hospital bed, but you do not have to give birth there you can give birth pretty much anywhere so if you would like to have you baby in a birthing pool or standing up or on all fours or in any other position then write it down here and don’t forget to tell your midwife or show her the birth plan when you get to the hospital.

Unfortunately not all labours are easy and some women need extra help to deliver their babies, if you have any preferences on how this is handled for example would you like your partner to be present at a c-section then you should write these down on your birth plan.

Although it can be difficult to imagine that the labour will be over at some point! – it will and there are a few choices to be made about your hospital stay. First thing is after your baby is born do you want him or her to be placed on your chest? Most midwives will do this automatically but you do not have to have him placed straight there if you have another preference say here. 

Secondly skin to skin contact is a wonderful way to bond with you new baby and so if you would like to hold him for a while before he is cleaned up and dressed then say so (i really recommend this I held my daughter for an hour as she was a bit chilly and really regretted not having the chance to do so with my son).

Also you need to say whether you would like to breastfeed of bottle feed, and ask for the support you need to do this.

There all loads of things you could fill a birth plan with, i would recommend, picking the few things that mean the most to you, going in with a huge list of what you want can be a bit overwhelming both for you and the person delivering your baby and the most important thing to bear in mind is that you need to be flexible and remember that the birth is not a test and it doesn’t matter if thigns don’t go to plan.