what are you including in your birth plan?

[memory maker]

I am going to be having a birth in a hospital with a midwife and am making my birthplan. what are you including in yours?

[flyingspaghettimama]

I'm doing a homebirth, so I won't be doing one (crossed-fingers). It's hard, for me a hospital birth is worst-case scenario, only because it meant something went amiss or my preeclampsia returned - or maybe cesearean is worst. In that case, I would definitely want a birthplan - so do I make one just in case? Is it bad luck?

With my first pregnancy, I used a checklist like this one:
http://www.pregnancyweekly.com/pregn...birth_plan.htm although later my medwife told me she "didn't believe in birthplans" (based on Birthing from Within), which was NOT helpful in the hospital situation. Didn't matter, she never showed up for the process anyhow. Ah, this bitterness wil subside at some point, right? :

The checkboxes and layouts seemed to help the nurses (which changed all the time, it seemed like) remember what I wanted at a glance. The one thing I think is missing from this are privacy issues - looking back, I would've also added things like "care professionals should announce themselves and/or knock before entering" or "I do not wish to be disturbed by window washers, maintenance crews, or other staff unless requested for at least 24 hours after birth." It will make you the "challenging" patient, but from my understanding that's good - the nurses who like a thinking, natural mama will self-assign, and the control freaks will stay away. Or something like, "I would like a visit from a lactation consultant" or "I'm a vegetarian" is not on here either, along with waiting to cut the cord or not washing the baby off. And declining the eyedrops, yada yada...

Too bad Mothering doesn't make a template, for those times when we either must or choose to deliver in hospital. (hint, hint)

[Awaken]

Loraeileen, sorry about the less than positive midwife experience- sounds like things will go much better this time!

The only things I would want to do differently from last time- and I pretty much had the perfect birth for a first time mom who didn't really know what she wanted!

-don't cut the cord right away- I didn't even think of this before- now I wish it hadn't been done so soon

-put the baby to breast right away- I waited a while before, I was kind of nervous about bf so needed some coaxing. This time I hope the baby can latch on sooner.

-my husband will announce the sex- as he did last time, but I didn't remember it!

-encourage me to look at and feel the baby as it comes out- I was on my hands and knees with my face in a pillow so never saw my son being born and I totally regret it! I first saw him when they put him under me, and I hope this time my dh or the mw will remind me to take a look or feel the head as it comes out!

-and the whole vit K/eye goop thing- I need to figure out what I'm doing this time

-and, I want to take home the placenta- somehow it seems so wrong for such an important part of myself and my baby to just be thrown away. But I don't know what else to do with it- ideas anyone???

[flyingspaghettimama]

Originally Posted by itsybitsy25

-encourage me to look at and feel the baby as it comes out- I was on my hands and knees with my face in a pillow so never saw my son being born and I totally regret it! I first saw him when they put him under me, and I hope this time my dh or the mw will remind me to take a look or feel the head as it comes out!

-and, I want to take home the placenta- somehow it seems so wrong for such an important part of myself and my baby to just be thrown away. But I don't know what else to do with it- ideas anyone???

That is something to specify one way or another, I didn't want to look in the mirror in my situation, just not what I felt like doing at the time, being in an extremely uncomfortable position and all hopped up on mag-sulfate, but they kept asking anyways, which I found annoying. I think I'm a very practical person in birth - something probably about those Polish genes again - you have the baby and get back to work in the beet fields.

I have heard some people bury the placenta in the yard, and plant a tree over it that will grow every year since the babe's birth, which I think is a nice idea (albeit maybe not one you'd want to share when it's time to sell the house, unless it's to someone really cool). I think that it's something to check with the hospitals beforehand, as they have to store it in a fridge of some sort until you go home.

[Kavita]

Note on the placenta--if you're in a cold climate or don't have a place to plant it yet you can put it in a Ziploc type freezer bag (preferably two!) and freeze it till you're ready to plant it. Just put it somewhere where animals, including your dog if you have one, won't dig it up!

As far as the birth "plan", I think one problem with them is that birth is inherently unpredictable, so it's hard to adhere to a "plan" if things don't go the way we've imagined they might go. But I think that it is good to write down some desires and preferences, keeping in mind that some of them might have to be tweaked a bit at the time.

For me, I picked a homebirth midwife that has as her standard practice most of the issues that are biggies for me (she doesn't bulb suction the babies and doesn't cut or even touch the cord till after the placenta's out.) I am going to make a list of the things I want/don't want if we have to transport to the hospital. For example, no pacifiers or artificial feeding, no bath, want to not be separated from the baby except in case of dire emergency, etc. Since I actually worked for a while in the postpartum unit of the hospital we'd have to transport to, I sort of have an idea of how to pick my battles a little better at least in regards to the baby once it's out. For me, I don't feel like it's bad luck to make a contingency plan--I don't want to put too much energy into the hospital thing and wouldn't go preregister or anything like that, but I'm a "contingency-plan" kinda gal--I like to consider all possibilities, including the worst case scenario, and have some sort of plan how I would handle that situation.