Anyone else with no "plan"?

[Nicole730]

I am 27 weeks and planning a homebirth. Except, I don't have much of a plan in mind. I figure I'll walk around my house, be in labor, then migrate towards the bedroom to give birth. Possibly try to fit into the tub or take a shower if I need to. DS will be 22 months and he'll be around for the birth. DH will be here along with my mom for support. And depending on the time of day, my dad might be here too, to help with DS. I will have a midwife I'll call when contractions are regular and she brings an assistant midwife with her. I'll have the supplies on my list ready, but I just feel like maybe I should be doing something more to prepare. I didn't take any sort of relaxation or birthing classes last time and got through a hospital birth with no drugs. So, I figure I can do it again.

Anyone else not really have a plan?

[nikirj]

I'm not going to make a plan. Didn't last time either. We did plan where to put the birth tub...and then decided to put it somewhere else when I was in labor.

[Fujiko]

Yeah, me neither. I don't think there's really too much to plan. You do what you feel like when you feel like doing it. That's about it. I do have a hospital "birth plan" written out should I need to be transferred, and I'm going to ask my midwife about her normal transfer procedures, just so I know what would happen should something arise. But for the homebirth, nah, it'll just flow. I'll have a birth tub available and a birth ball available, but I'm not going to promise I'll use either!

I am planning food. I'll be freezing a big batch of spicy chicken soup and dinner rolls for my SIL/doula to thaw and heat for everyone to eat during the labor, plus I'll have an after-birth meal planned out for her to make for me (probably biscuits & sausage gravy, nom).

[Belle]

I had a honey-do list for dh but that was as far as my "plan" went. I talked a lot with our midwives at our prenatal visits and never felt the need for a written plan.

[LovnMyBoys]

Sounds like my "plan" when I had my homebirth with my second. I did what felt right in the moment, had the bed double made and had an amazing birthing experience.

[UptownZoo]

I didn't have a plan. I've had three unmedicated births (though only one was at home) and I wanted something different every time. With my youngest (who was born at home), I always imagined that I'd birth him squatting on the floor of my bedroom. Instead, he was born in the birthing pool in the back yard!

[engineer_mom]

No real plan at my last birth (HB) or this coming one. But I did plan what I was going to cook for the midwives & doula, that's really it. I'm horrible about cooking on the spot.
Last time I ended up spending the first part of labor (before it got intense) cleaning the house (just normal tidying) and making the bed.

[Tattooed Hand]

This is my first and I'm 40 weeks planning a homebirth. Except for making freezer food, cleaning up the house and getting a blow up birth pool (which I might or might not use), I just plan on going with the flow, since who knows what I will want/need when the deed goes down.

DH is really anal and packed me a hospital bag in case I have to transfer, wrote out a birth plan, and wrote himself a list of things to do (like double make the bed, make sure camera and ipod are charged, etc) when I go into labor.

[MsBlack]

Sometimes clients ask me if they should have a birth plan....and other than possibly having a backup-transfer plan, I tell them "the plan is that you will do as you see fit and I plan to follow your lead!" No need to write it down. I do ask families to be sure to let me know if they have special preferences that I should know about, for labor or birth/beyond, so I can be best prepared to honor their wishes if at all possible.

Sounds to me like you have 'plan enough' in mind

[laughingfox]

The only thing I did that resembled planning ahead was buying the stuff on the list and getting a few cantaloupes (my favorite). I was so glad for the cantaloupes, though. I don't think I could have handled eating anything more substantial than that in labor.
I did pack a bag in case of transfer, too, but that wasn't really part of my homebirth "plan".

[Astraia]

Depends on your MW.

I didn't make a birth plan and she didn't knwo anything about my preferences (and I had shared care with 2 midwives, I hadn't seen her in AGES. My other midwife and I seemed to really click and we talked at length about not cutting the cord, etc but this one apparently didn't get the memo...)

I would have made a point to discuss things like delayed cord clamping, non-directed pushing, letting me choose the labour and pushing positions, letting me or DH catch the baby, not doing suctioning unless she was having trouble pinking up, etc. A lot of things didn't go like I wanted and I'm apparently a total jellyfish in labour so I did whatever she suggested whether or not I agreed with her.

But if you've talked all this out already- then no. I don't think you need a plan. Move as your body needs you to, be wherever it feels right, vocalize as needed.

I think a code-word is good. I didn't talk at all once labour got intense- really, I couldn't say more than a word or two at a time- and there were times where I wanted to say, "don't touch me!" but all I could manage was an irritated grunt, or a "don't" (which sometimes got really misinterpreted). Having DH on standby knowing that "ugh" means "stop whatever you're doing immediately" would have been pretty handy, I think!

[wbg]

No plan except for childcare provisions!

[Nicole730]

I had a MW appointment yesterday and we talked a little about this. She said the beauty of being at home is there is no plan necessary. Anything I want to do throughout labor is what we do. Sounds good to me!

[JennTheMomma]

I don't have a birth plan written out. My MW and I talk about my birth little by little in each appointment, and I talk to DH about it all the time. Basically I will eat small nutritional snacks when I'm hungry, small sips of water diluted with juice throughout labor, start getting tub ready when labor starts and call MW (she has to drive almost 2 hours to our house), and walk around. That's basically it. All the supplies will be on the table next to the birth tub, and I'll hopefully have snacks made and in the fridge, or buy a bunch of yogurt like I did last time.

[leaves]

I didn't have a plan, but I felt like that's what was best for me. I figured if I made a plan, I wouldn't stick to it anyway. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but no "rules" I minded breaking. My only real plan was to make sure I didn't take my bra off, because I wanted to be able to post pictures on FB, and I didn't want my boobs exposed to the world.