Birth plan

[mrscompgeek]

Did anyone do a birth plan for a home birth?? I was looking at sample ones and they are all more for hospital births with what to do and don'ts. . .If you did a birth plan for a home birth what did you put on it? Most of the stuff I want are all "normal" home birth things like , dad catches the baby, I want the baby to nurse right away, dont give baby any meds. .etc.

What I have so far is more a list of things for DH to do..lol
Is this what you did? Did your midwife want a birth plan??


•Early Labor

1.Call midwife & doula and let them know labor has started
2.Tidy up the house
3.Take Dogs to arranged sitters
4.Blow up birth pool (if not already blown up) & start filling it
(Place plastic under birth pool to keep splashes from getting on the floor then put old blanket or towels beside the pool to dry my feet when I get in and out or for midwife to kneel on. )
5.Put plastic sheet on our bed under the sheets
6.Get soup/food out of freezer to thaw or start preparing something for midwives to eat later in labor.
7.Get music ready in cd player
8.Sleep/ take nap
9.Set snacks, paper cups & plates out on counter for easy access if someone is hungry/thirsty during labor.
10.Make sure Camera batteries are good & have camera out where we can reach it easily.

•Labor
1.Call midwife & doula to let them know when they should come
2.Finish filling birth pool (I want to wear a bathing suit top while in the pool)
3.Start music if I want it then
4.Turn big lights off and have just lamps on or if its daytime no lights on
5.Make sure to offer me drinks & snacks every so often (offer Red Raspberry leaf popsicles to me. . . in the freezer)
6.Offer to massage my back/shoulders/feet
7.Remind me to breath & relax
8.Have a bowl with ice water beside pool or wherever I am laboring at & keep cool washcloths on my face/neck.
9.Please use paper plates/cups if eating during my labor to avoid a lot of dishes later on to clean.


•Delivery /After delivery
1.Dad will be catching the baby & cutting the cord
2.After baby is dried off and has nursed,etc. . . .put baby in a disposable diaper & sleeper that will be ready with the birth supplies.
3.I have frozen pads in the freezer in a ziplock bag for me
4.Would like as much privacy as possible (limited interruption) when taking a bath after birth.

[littlebb]

When I first started seeing my MW, she gave us a binder that included some worksheets to write in the things that would make our birth ideal. We filled it out then, but of course it's gone through many modifications since then since we have learned more and more about HB options. Now that we're in the home stretch, we're really focusing on getting it finalized - it's more for us just to keep us mentally looking at the birth.

I think the list you have is great - I'm thinking of doing something similar. This is our first birth and DH is really efficient, but I'm afraid in his excitement he's going to get distracted or just forget some things. It is a lot for a DH to remember when his wife is laboring! I just think he'd feel more confident if he had a cheat sheet to refer to.

So in my opinion, I think you're headed in the right direction.

[JamieCatheryn]

I wrote one to help me work out and visualize how it would go as well as to let DH and the midwife know what I wanted. I wrote for early labor to help me clean, let me rest, get outside, and play games or watch movies. For active labor I asked no phone calls around me, no chatting around me, let me focus. Throughout, I asked drinks and snacks be handed to me often. For transition I put to ignore my self doubt don't humor me and argue, do lots of physical comfort help stuff, and even if it's too much for me it will happen anyway. In pushing I pretty much asked everyone to leave me alone just give me water. Afterward I asked for the cord cutting to happen after an hour, and JP hold baby while I shower.

Pushing was more intense than expected and I needed encouragement to get through it (though no direction like saying to push or anything), apart from that things went as expected and it was perfect.

[GoldmanBaby09]

I'd agree that this is more of a "Honey-do" list than a real birth plan. That is one of the very nice things about having a home birth. You don't have to worry about defending your choices or having other's respect your body, your baby or your wishes. Everyone who is in attendance is working for you! For the most part, I don't really feel like I need to put things in writing, as long as I discuss them with my midwife, she has been really receptive about whatever I want to do. I do think that you should keep this running list for your husband. It will give him clear instructions on what he is supposed to do at a time when a lot of partners can feel lost and overwhelmed.

[mrscompgeek]

Ok, thanks for the input!! Here is the final list. . .Did I forget anything?


Midwife phone #
Doula Phone #

•Early Labor

1.Call midwife & doula and let them know labor has started
2.Tidy up the house (mainly make sure bathroom is cleaned & no clothes or clutter laying around. Make sure dishes are all washed up & put away)
3.Take Dogs to arranged sitters
4.Blow up birth pool (if not already blown up) & start filling it
(Place plastic under birth pool to keep splashes from getting on the floor then put old blanket or towels beside the pool to dry my feet when I get in and out or for midwife to kneel on. )
5.Put plastic sheet on our bed under the sheets
6.Get soup/food out of freezer to thaw or start preparing something for midwives to eat later in labor.
7.Get music ready in cd player (Or play TV channel XM 856)
8.Sleep/ take nap if night time or if feeling tired. If not tired take a walk with me or get me out of the house.
9.Set snacks, paper cups & plates out on counter for easy access if someone is hungry/thirsty during labor.
10.Make sure Camera batteries are good & have camera out where we can reach it easily.

•Labor
1.Call midwife & doula to let them know when they should come
2.Finish filling birth pool (I want to wear a bathing suit top while in the pool)
3.Start music or start a movie if I need a distraction. Remember to turn off movie if I seem like It is a distraction and getting annoying.
4.Turn big lights off and have just lamps on or if its daytime no lights on
5.Make sure to offer me drinks & snacks every so often (offer Red Raspberry leaf popsicles to me. . . in the freezer)
6.Offer to massage my back/shoulders/feet. Don’t use any lotions or oils if I am in the pool already.
7.Remind me to breath & relax
8.Have a bowl with ice water beside pool or wherever I am laboring at & keep cool washcloths on my face/neck.
9.Please use paper plates/cups if eating during my labor to avoid a lot of dishes later on to clean.
10. Turn phones on silent and dont answer them unless emergency or go out of the room to talk on them.


•Delivery /After delivery
1.Chadd will be catching the baby & cutting the cord
2.After baby is dried off and has nursed,etc. . . .put baby in a disposable diaper & sleeper that will be ready with the birth supplies.
3.I have frozen pads in the freezer in a ziplock bag for me to use after my bath.
4.Would like as much privacy as possible (limited interruption) when taking a bath after birth.
5.When you empty birth pool throw the liner away & deflate the pool. Wash the blanket or towels that are laying around the pool & hang the plastic outside to dry that was under the pool.
6.Make sure I eat something after the birth

[JorgieGirl]

I only had a birth plan written up in case of transfer. That way if there was a true emergency I would be prepared. I needed all of my t's crossed and i's dotted though. Some people find that that doesn't bring good karma, but I needed to for my peace of mind. In the end, I didn't need it because I had a perfect homebirth.

Your plan looks great!!

[AVeryGoodYear]

My birth plan was one line:

"WHAT I SAY IS LAW AND I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO REPEAT MYSELF." Haha!

Your birth plan looks quite lovely and detailed. Remember to be flexible in case (heaven forfend) things don't happen the way you expect. You can still be satisfied with your birth experience even if it doesn't happen point-by-point as you envision it.

It is so exciting to have your first one on the way. Congratulations!

[Belle]

Originally Posted by GoldmanBaby09

I'd agree that this is more of a "Honey-do" list than a real birth plan. That is one of the very nice things about having a home birth. You don't have to worry about defending your choices or having other's respect your body, your baby or your wishes. Everyone who is in attendance is working for you!

I love that home birth plans are not a list of things they don't want done to them, but read more like grocery lists.

I didn't have a birth plan for my dh but in retrospect maybe I should have written something down like this for him. I didn't really need or want a doula for the birth (and I'm a doula myself) but my dh said he could have used one.

[dogmom327]

OP--thanks for posting. I used it to make a honey-do list for DH for the fridge

[mrscompgeek]

Lol your welcome dogmom!! :
Thanks for the input everyone!!

[Comtessa]

OP, this looks great! You might want to include some "what-if" things on your plan - i.e., how to get to your transfer hospital, things that somebody needs to stay behind to do. There was a thread on here a while back from someone who transferred from her HB and came home after her emergency C-section to find that the birth pool had sprung a leak and done thousands of dollars' worth of damage to her home. So, in my birth plan, I included instructions like "if we transfer, someone needs to stay behind to drain the pool, turn off the crock pot, feed the cat, and lock up the house." It was very helpful to my labor support folks, especially when we did transfer.

I included lists of food that we would have in the house that I might like to eat in labor, so that people could just run down the "menu" to me instead of asking me to think of something I could eat. (Frozen grapes and banana smoothies saved my life.)

Here's my 'honey-do list' for DH:

"You are my primary source of support during this labor. I trust you to be my voice if I cannot speak, and my hands if I cannot reach. I need you at my side as much as humanly possible. You are going to be wonderful.

Here are some things I would like you to be aware of while I am in labor:
- Please massage my back and shoulders gently with oil as much as possible (without exhausting yourself). Also, offer to do gentle massage on my belly.
- Please stay close; I will need your physical presence to lean on. A lot.
- Please make sure you don’t forget to eat and drink and rest, too. Tell the midwives if you need a break, so they can help in the meantime.
- Be aware of the number of people in the room, and ask for privacy for us if it looks like I will need it.
- Please offer me things you think I might need (food, drink, massage, cold or warm compresses), because you know I’m not always good at asking for help.
- Please don’t answer the phone... or at least, don’t use it anywhere that I might hear it.
- Please don’t mention the hospital.
- Don’t get scared! We’re all going to be marvelous. I promise."

I also had a list of things for the midwives that might help them help me (i.e., "I like music but ask me occasionally if I'd prefer to turn it off because sometimes it distracts me and I don't realize it."), and for other support people (mostly a list of household tasks they could help with while they were around: how to work the laundry machines and coffeepot, where to find teabags and sugar, things that needed to be fixed or scrubbed, etc.) I also included commonsense things that people often forget, like, "check on the candles periodically to make sure they're not burning too low," and "stir the soup on the stove," and "make sure you don't take the key out of the door because the doors all have deadbolts that must be opened with a key." (Of course, everyone forgot this one, and they were scrambling around all over the place looking for keys . You can lead a horse to water, they say...)

[*MamaJen*]

Here was mine. I didn't feel like I necessarily needed it because my midwife and I were on the same page, but the process of writing it and thinking through the birth was helpful for me.
I'm also attaching a birth plan that I saw on here a while back. I though it was both hilarious and very practical.

Homebirth plan
We are planning a natural, midwife-attempted homebirth with minimal interventions. We feel that a midwife attended homebirth, with medical back-up close by in case of an emergency, is the best, safest and gentlest way of birth for both mother and child.
I trust that my midwives will provide sound and compassionate care, make good judgment calls and only intervene when necessary. Because I believe that our basic philosophies about birth are in sync, and because I trust their expertise, I will try to follow their recommendations during labor.
In general, we wish to follow the six basic aspects of optimal maternity care during childbirth:
1. Labor begins spontaneously
2. Women have freedom of movement during labor.
3. Interventions are medically justified rather than routine.
4. Women have continuous emotional and physical support.
5. Pushing occurs in any position but flat-on-back.
6. Mother and baby are not separated.

Prior to labor and early labor
--I hope to begin maternity leave at least one to two weeks prior to my due date to rest, relax and prepare for the delivery.
--During early labor, I plan to try to stay physically active, upbeat and relaxed by taking a walk, getting the house ready for delivery, cooking, talking to friends, playing with the dogs or spending time with my partner.

During delivery
--In addition to myself and [DP], those expected to attend the birth are the primary midwife, back-up midwife, and possibly a friend to act as support person and photographer. I may want the dogs inside as well. We’re fine with an apprentice midwife being present.
--I wish to labor and possibly deliver in the birth pool.
--I expect that during labor I will prefer minimal coaching and will wish to avoid directed pushing unless it appears necessary.
--I don’t mind appropriate checks and monitoring, but I would like to find a balance of hands on/hands off during labor.
--As much as possible, I wish to avoid any interventions such as an epidural, episiotomy, continuous fetal monitoring, laboring under strict time deadlines, amniotomy, directed pushing and laboring in the lithotomy position. I would not expect to encounter these in a home birth setting except in emergency situations.

Newborn procedures
--Begin breastfeeding immediately and maintain contact with my baby
--Delay cord cutting until no longer pulsing
--Delay all immunizations, including Hep. B
--Delay or decline Vitamin K shot unless it appears medically necessary
--We do request Erythromycin or similar treatment, though not immediately after birth
--We prefer to wait to perform the PKU testing until after breastfeeding is established
--Pitocin only if medically necessary for hemorrhage

Hospital transfer contingency plan:
--In case of emergency, we would prefer to transfer to [ Hospital] with Dr. [name] attending.
--My insurance will cover an emergency C-section, but will not cover a routine hospital birth. In light of that, I especially hope to avoid transferring unless it is a true medical emergency.
--In case of emergency hospital transfer, please be my advocate and help me maintain as close to my original birth plan as is medically feasible at the time and is possible in the hospital setting. I have compiled an emergency hospital transfer plan.
--If I am incapacitated/unable to communicate, [DP] has been designated as my medical proxy.


And here's the other one I found on MDC a while back:

#1 - stay the hell away from me unless I get mad at you for not being near me.
#2 - Don't touch me unless you instinctively do it and I seem to like it, or if I seek you out and want to be held.
#3 - I don't want to hear you calling your mother or anyone else.
#4 - Even if I can't hear it, don't call anyone until after the baby is born.
#5- Don't invite anyone over, unless it's my MW friend and make sure she stays in the living room. (And he could only do this if he broke rule #4 anyways)
#6 - The Kids can watch TV but I don't want to HEAR Nick, Disney or anything else that bugs me.
#7- Don't ask me questions
#8- Don't make me think or talk
#9- Take pictures, even if it makes me mad.
#10- If I ask you to do or get me something that's impossible, make up stupid reasons why it's not here yet, but don't tell me "no."
#11 - when I cry about not being able to do this anymore, remind me that I'm in transition and I will feel better.
#12 - next time I cry about it, have me check to see if I can feel the baby's head.
#13- the minute the placenta is born, allow me to take a shower and while I am in there, clean up the birth mess and make me a nest in bed so I can nurse the baby.
#14- while I am in the nest, make me a big nutritious meal (leftovers are OK) and while it's cooking, bring me OJ and a lot of water.