Birth Plans?

[cameragirl]

We have some new members, and I was wondering what everyone's birth plan is. (Or a basic plan - it is still pretty early.)

I originally wanted to use a birth center that is 10 minutes from our house. That is, until I found out that the birth center is a little ridiculous about their risk assessments. They take NO women with any form of abdominal surgery, c-section or not. I also decided that I didn't like the hospital they transfer to. That hospital is great for other things, but they haven't updated the maternity ward much.

I decided to go with OB care at a newer hospital because there is a good chance I might need to transfer for another health reason. The hospital is set in a grove of old-growth oak trees, the rooms are big and fairly cozy, and the hospital is "baby friendly." I like my OB. I found a new OB for this birth because I was completely unsatisfied with my last birth. I wish I had more time with her, but she does answer all of my questions, and has a calming/reassuring vibe. I've heard very good things about her from others that I know.

I'm planning for a VBAC. I'm a good candidate, and the OB and perinatologist didn't seem concerned that my daughter was large. If I'm sick because of the other health issue, I can accept that a c-section might be the way to go. I'd really like to go natural this time, though.

[Kyamo]

I chose at a hospital with a midwife. Having a midwife will make it less likely that I will end up with interventions I don't want, but I will feel safer being at a hospital "just in case". I don't have a choice of which hospital, because obviously I am going to the one where my midwife group has privileges so that she can be in charge of my birth.

[SageR]

I'm having my baby in our local hospital.  Because of my condition several things are out of my control, but the following is on my list -

*dh will receive the baby as soon as he is wiped off and bundled up, and bring him to me.  They will stay at my side until I am moved to recovery.

*baby will stay with me in recovery and we will attempt to nurse asap

*baby will room-in (stay in room) with me.  if baby needs to go to the nursery he will always be accompanied by a family member

*baby will not get eye drops/ointment, any injections of any kind including vit. k and vaccines

* if boy will not be circumsized

*baby will not receive any formula or given pacifier - no artificial nipples

*baby will be bathed and diapered by family members only

*mama will receive pain medication on time accompanied by stool softeners

*mama requests that if she is sleeping that she not be woken up for basic checks

I need to work on my contingency plan though.  Which is reminding dh of the baby care stuff.

I know this is disliked around here but I think it is really important that mamas have their "ideal" plan and then their contingency plan in case things don't go perfectly.  I never dreamed I was one of those women, and was completely unprepared for my first delivery and subsequent recovery.  Looking back there isn't really anything I could have done during my pregnancy and labor to change what happened, but there were several things that happened after the baby was born that could have been different.  Most of you will probably be fine but it won't hurt to be as prepared as possible.

[Bobbys]

I'm giving birth in a hospital with a midwife. I used the same midwifery group for DS and had an excellent labor, birth, recovery. I'd be an excellent candidate for homebirth but I live out of state where my midwives aren't licensed. It's ok. I enjoyed the hospital. No one bothered me unnecessarily and I didn't have to worry about my house being clean for family or midwives. I think it's easiest this way. My only concern is my midwife group changed hospitals, but they seem to have the run of the floor there, so I hope it goes as smoothly as it did last time.

[Dandy Lion]

I'm going to be giving birth at home. My midwives are very in tune with the way I want things to go, and I'm excited to get to cuddle up with my baby in my own bed after the birth.

Ideally my labor will start after I put my dd to bed. I'll spend some time cuddled up with my dh and when the contractions start getting intense I'll move the pool in front of the fireplace. After about 5 hours of labor my baby will be born, and the midwives will take care of all the clean-up and tuck us into bed. In the morning my dd will wake up to a new brother or sister, and a grandparent will take her to school. We'll spend the morning sleeping and nursing, and my mom will make us lunch when we get hungry.

Of course there are contigency plans and all that, and I'm actually a very realistic person, but this is my plan.

[xosara]

I'm going to deliver at the hospital. What sucks though is it is 35 minutes away from my home. It is a really nice hospital, everything is updated. They have a little area where you can sit outside and look at a fountain and what not. But it might be too cold to go out in March. I haven't 100% decided if I don't want an epidural or not. I've never gone into labor, so I'm not sure how well I will be able to handle the pain. I've been researching other options that I have, like positions and what not, but I'm not sure I'm really comfortable doing that. I also think I don't want my baby to have any vaccines, but I haven't really gone into the research of what the benefits and the risks are. I want my baby to be in the room with me and not taken to the nursery. And while I am giving birth, I only want myself and my fiance in the room. I hope it doesn't hurt anyone elses feelings, but I feel like it should be just between him and I. I want people to come to the hospital and meet the baby, but only after I have recovered and been moved into my recovery room because I really don't want people bombarding my home the day I come home. I would like a few days to ourselves to adjust and not be bothered. My friend had family and friends come over the day she brought her daughter home, and by the end of the day they were complaining about having people over all day. I haven't really figured out what I want to happen on D day, but I do have a little while to figure that out.

[mamathomas]

Planning a home water birth this time around.  My midwife and her assistant will be there, along with my doula.  And DH and DD of course.  If DD wants to be in the same room with us, great.  But her level of involvement will be completely up to her.  My doula also offers sibling support so that's a big comfort, and we'll have a plan in place if DD wants out of the house altogether.  Should the need for a transfer arise, the hospital/birthing center is 10 minutes away. 

Not planning on anything too specific other than going with the flow and focusing on a peaceful, natural birthing experience :)

[Dandy Lion]

One thing to check on for those of you giving birth in hospitals, even though they allow "rooming in" they might not your baby stay in your room while you're sleeping. Mine didn't because of security reasons which meant I had to try and stay up for 2 nights straight to keep my daughter from going into the nursery.

[Janel47]

SageR -- The last one on your list is GENIUS!  I don't know why I never thought of putting that on my requests.  With DD1, they woke me up no less than 5 TIMES in the two nights I was there to ask if we had a carseat.  OMG, really... if it was in the room with me I would have chucked at the next person who switched on my light...

Planning a home waterbirth with a midwife and her assistant (doula and midwife in training).  No birth plan yet.

[lizsky]

Homebirth has crossed my mind, but it doesn't seem like a good fit for a bunch of reasons (DH is not on board, we are urban w/ limited privacy, only 1 legal HB MW and she is not my style) and ultimately we can't afford it.  

So I'm planning a hospital birth with the same MW group that delivered my DD.  The hospital is not fancy and my post-partum room was tiny, but that stuff isn't a big deal to me... my MWs have a philosophy about birth that closely mirrors my own, and the hospital is mama/baby friendly in the ways that were most important to me- they mostly left me alone during labor, I labored and delivered in the jacuzzi tub, and the nurses were all very kind and positive about natural childbirth.  DD stayed with me or DH the entire time, and they didn't care that we declined HepB & Eye ointment.  

In a perfect world, I'd love a slightly bigger post-partum room, and a ped who would sign us out sooner than 24 hours...but when I look at the big picture of what an "average" American hospital is like, I feel very fortunate.  

[BirthIsAwesome]

I'm planning my second homebirth :) I am planning to have just hubby and midwife there for the labor, but a close friend of mine who will be watching my firstborn is a good photographer (amateur, but good!) and I'm hoping to have her arrive with Malachi right when I'm pushing so that I can have pictures of the birth and most importantly of that first hour of the four of us all together. Hoping for a normal straightforward birth like last time.

[Lolafanana]

I am planning my 2nd homebirth.  My dd will be there if she wants too but if not, my parents are coming to pick up my son and she can go with them. I don't have too rigid a plan but I just want to labor and give birth in the birth pool, next to the fireplace with my dh, doula and midwife there.  i just want a peaceful, beautiful, birth that i am in control of.

[Fly Girl]

I'm planning my 3rd home birth. My last 2 births have been during the day so I'm planning on a day birth. My 2 midwives, doula and DH will be there. I plan to have my MIL or my dad if he's in town watch my girls while I'm birthing. If they want to be in the room with me, I'm fine with that. If not, that's okay too. I haven't decided yet if I want a birth pool. I have a deep soaking tub but it wasn't comfortable last birth so I may get a pool this time.

[mollsworth]

We are planning on a birth center birth in a gorgeous center that just opened near us. In a perfect world I will labor at home as long as possible and be ready to head over there after rush hour. The drive is 10 minutes during quiet hours, but can be 45 in traffic. 

We will have our midwife, my mom (flying early from out of state) and one or two interpreters (hubby is Deaf). Both interpreters we chose are close friends and are totally on our wavelength about birth. They are doing all of our prenatal stuff and classes as well. So glad to have so many people we love there with us. :)

This is going to be fantastic. If I weren't loving the pregnancy part so much, I would say "I can't wait" for the birth, but I'm just looking forward to all of it!

[edymoomom]

I would love a home birth or midwife. But I am very high risk. I did find a Dr. and hospital that is very family oriented and such a welcoming atmosphere. My Dr. is so awesome. I have two people on call to be with ds and dd but they both live a distance away from us. SO ds & dd may be at the birth. Ds is type 1 diabetic so he must have someone with him trained to take care of his condition. The Dr. is actually giving the kids special classes about the birth and giving them special jobs in case they are present. I am so excited my previous birth experiences have been so cold and complicated I am looking forward to a warm and welcoming experience.

[Janel47]

Mollsworth... I was chuckling at you "perfect world" comment.  Isn't that so true?  Last time, I thought I had nailed the perfect world scenario as I was in labor early saturday morning, but the traffic gods still had something against me and we hit rush-hour-like traffic anyhow... gah!  This time I will be praying that my midwife doesn't get caught in that same traffic, but at least I'll be home soaking in a tub if she does!  ;)

[LizzieMum]

Where we live I don't have a choice of hospital as there is only one.  I would love to have a homebirth but there is no hb midwife in my area and currently in Australia there is a lot going on with legislation etc as to the legality of hb in general.  It's awful and makes me really sad.

So, my plan is to labour at home for as long as possible and then go over to the hospital for the delivery.  I also need to discuss with the midwives birthing my placenta naturally as other women in the area that I spoken to have said that the hospital automatically gives you a shot of sync-something to deliver the placenta.  I don't think I want this.  I'd prefer to give birth naturally and then placenta naturally too.  I'm worried that when I arrive at hospital my labour will slow down because my body will sense that I don't want to be there :-(

Oh, and I'd like to keep my placenta, probably send it home with mum or MIL.  Need to check with hospital that I can do this.

[cappuccinosmom]

Right now we are going with a hospital based midwife/OB practice.  I would like to switch to the midwives who have a birth center in town, but twice now they've had to bump me to hospital birth anyway, so if they're not in-network with our insurance, I don't think it's worth moving to them, as much as I love them.  The current practice we use is way more standard OB care.  Had a 12 w u/s, will have another at 20 w, loads and loads of bloodwork, everything's shiny tile and efficient office stuff.  Big contrast to the other midwives.  But, I've heard good things about the birth center with their hospital, so I'm hopeful.

Birth plan is to refuse induction if I go late, unless baby is *actually* in distres, arrive at the hosp. near transition, have the baby, and go home. :D

If I were to have a homebirth, it would have to be unassisted, and I'm not comfortable planning on that. However, as fast as my other labors have gone, it may end up being an accidental homebirth.  I have not yet made it to the hospital before 7 cm, and my longest labor was 6-7 hours.  The other two were 4 hours on the dot.

[CassnBeth]

We're going with a hospital birth with a perinatologist and a doula. In magical-fairy-perfect-birth-land the idea would be for me to go CLEARLY into labour with none of this false labour or prodromal labour nonsense on a day where it is not snowing and we have power. My daughter would be cared for by my best friend for as long as it takes my mother (who is not receiving chemo during this entire week) and father to drive the ten hours here from PA. I labour alone until things are well established and keep in contact with my doula by phone. Once things really get going, the doula comes and gives me an opinion on how far along things are and we use her opinion and my feelings to get all of us in the car and on the road to the hospital during a time which is not rush hour so the trip only takes an hour and fifteen minutes. I am not in transition or pushing and my water does not break in the car. If we get to the hospital and things aren't so far along that I feel I need to stay there, I get to leave again and go hang out in my sister's dorm room one block from the hospital. I make it back to the hospital for transition during which I neither vomit nor threaten my wife. The baby is born easily and vaginally and I do not spend any mental energy on manipulating my doctor since it is my beloved perinatologist who I have been seeing all along and he does not cross me. We go home after 48 hours, the baby breastfeeds beautifully, my milk actually comes in and my mother does not give my any grief about my housekeeping.

In real life? Eh. I am sure at least 50 percent of this will be out the window due to circumstances or bad decisions (super long car trip, I am looking at you!). The things I am particularly expecting to go awry? Well, I am pretty much guaranteed to have a doctor I have never met since my peri. is in a practice with 18 other guys. I have PCOS, suspected insufficient glandular tissue and flat nipples so breastfeeding is very high on my worry list. I am due February 29th in new england which isn't the safest time weather-wise. Driving into Boston could concievably be crowded at 3am on a Tuesday; I'll feel happy if that trip comes in under two hours. My best friend will have her own two teeny children in a two bedroom apartment so I don't think she will be able to watch DD for more than a few hours. Oh! and my mother absolutely will criticise my housekeeping. Guaranteed.

[JHopesMomma]

With DD, I ended up getting an epidural shortly after we were admitted to the hospital (I was at 4cm for 2 days with contractions before I was admitted...), and although it was a very calm birth experience I absolutely did not enjoy staying in the hospital.  The constant checks, etc., plus we got roommates on our last night there.  The nurses took our daughter both nights so we could get sleep, which was one thing I said we would NEVER do, but umm, I was a tired brand new mom and gave in to them. 

This time, I really really want to try a homebirth, but we're not able.  Our health insurance wouldn't cover a midwife, and won't even cover a birthing center.  We're also about 40 min. from the closest hospital, so it makes a little more sense for us to plan on a hospital birth.  Because of our situation, we're not able to choose our doctor, so we won't know the doctor delivering our baby...but that didn't really make a difference last time (the doctor showed up at the last push, and left after I delievered the placenta...).  We have talked about hiring a doula, since last time I felt like we were really unprepared to handle labor.  I would like to have an unmedicated birth this time, but we'll see.  I guess I'd just say I'm pretty flexbile, and I know that things may not happen the way I envision it.  Who knows, we may not make it to the hospital in time and baby is born in the car!  :)