emergency c/s and birth plan qestion

[MamaTaraX]

When I had both of my boys I hadbirth plans. We planned,and had, beautiful natural births. With myfirst I didn't write much about c/s in the plan. With my second, I did. This time we're having a homebirth and I was thinking, would there be anything wrong with making a birth plan for an emergency transfer or c/s? Do you think there's a feasable chance of it even being looked at? I'd keep it very short and clear just in case there weretime sensitive issues. Thanks!

Namaste, Tara
mama to Doodle (6), Butterfly (23mos), and Rythm (due at home 1/06)

[stafl]

When planning my vbac (homebirth away from home) I did write a birth plan, but I never planned to use it. It was more of an exercise in getting my thoughts and wishes down on paper, and to share them with DH, my doula, and my midwives. I figured, if I did have to transfer to the hospital, it would have been a life and death situation and all my wishes would be thrown out the window in favor of doing whatever it took to make sure me and the baby were okay. My birthplan was all about avoiding medical interventions. A hospital transfer would most certainly involve all things medical, and make 90% of my birthplan moot.

[Butterflymom]

Good question...but the pp is right, in my case anyway, since we are planning a homebirth and the only way I'm going to a hospital is if the midwife feels things look really bad and it's a life or death situatoin, and in that case it's all out of my hands.

[onlyboys]

If I need a cesarean section for emergent reasons (which will be the only reason I have one) then I will just accept their help and the intervention that comes with it. I can only think of a handful of reasons for a cesarean birth, and all of them involve immediate responses and very little in the way of "compromise."

After birth care is totally different. My husband and I have talked about my wishes just in case, and it involves him staying with the baby and making sure that nothing happens to him or her that we do not consent to.

[ccohenou]

Tara, I didn't have a c/s birthplan (or any transport birthplan at all). We did transport for a bleeding emergency and I can't see how it would have made any difference in terms of the birth - a c/s is a c/s more or less, unless you wanted to ask for double layer suturing or some other technical preference. I think I probably had single-layer this time though I'm okay with that having seen the studies on it.
You probably want to make sure they aren't going to give bottles, pacifiers, circumcisions, keep the baby away from you etc. But my husband took care of this verbally and I don't think a written document would be much of an improvement, except maybe in a really baby-unfriendly hospital and with a baby-plan that is written explicitly as an informed refusal - not "here's what we prefer but do what you need to."

[mrsfatty]

It may be best to have a "baby care" plan--because you'll just take what they give you for an EMERGENCY C/S...but you can say, "no immunizations," or, "no artificial nipples, no formula," etc.

And you can have a plan for you for AFTER too...and just have it all in one place...so you have it in writing what your wishes are.

[JSerene]

IMO a birth plan for baby is a must and should be sent with baby to the nursery. Your dh could inform a nurse of your wishes, just to have the next nurse come along and do something you didn't want. Many well-meaning nurses routinely give babies formula right after the c-section because they figure mom won't be up to breastfeeding anyway (I know this, I work in the nursery). Also, I agree with Stafl in using it as an exercise to get your thoughts and wishes down on paper.

[Storm Bride]

What do you all recommend re: formula in a case where you don't even get the baby for 12 hours? With ds, I had an emergency section under general anesthesia. When I woke up in post-op, I didn't know where I was, or that I'd had a baby (general really messes me up). While wheeling me to the maternity ward, a nurse put ds on my gurney just long enough for me to touch his face and fall in love. Then, they took him away, gave me a sleeping pill (I would have refused it I weren't so out of it), and I didn't see him again until the next morning. I have to assume they gave him formula, although it never occurred to me to ask. But, really...wouldn't a baby be better off with formula than with nothing for 12 or more hours?

[USAmma]

I was planning a hospital birth and I had two different birth plans, one for vag. birth and one for an emergency c-section. I made sure to include in the csection one that I wanted my doula to come in and be next to me as my dh was leaving with the baby to the nursery.

[stafl]

I discussed with my backup OB my wishes to nurse baby *before* being taken to recovery, in the event of another cesarean. I also spoke with the LC's that work at his hospital, and they said it would be no problem to request a few extra nurses to come in and hold baby in the correct position if I were unable to do it myself. I also made sure that DH knew to be with the baby at all times. That if I had to be separated from baby for any reason, he was not to let her out of his sight, not for one second, and that he was not to let them give her formula or anything else in a bottle, no matter what. I was separated from my first baby for four or five hours after my cesarean, while the spinal wore off.

[applejuice]

If it makes you feel better, go ahead and make plans, keeping in mind that your priorities change when you go to the hospital.

Good luck.

I do not think you will need the emergency plan.s up

[MamaTaraX]

What do you all recommend re: formula in a case where you don't even get the baby for 12 hours?

Not quite the same but my first had TTN (and I later found out sepsis, which no one told me...) and was taken to Special Care Nursery when he was a couple hours earthside. I was given theoption of not feeding himuntil I could nurse or giving him formula. TTN babies, I was told, can haveproblems nursing. I did actually try to nurse him but he couldn't do it so I bowed my head and gave him formula, the minimum he could take and the minimum they'd give. I didn't see him from about hour 2 of lifeuntil about hour 8 and he was given no formula in that time. I said he could have nothing until I saw him and at least tried to nurse. Part of me feels bad, like I starved my baby, but the rest of me knows I did all right.

I think that if I weren't going to see my baby for 12 hrs, I'd rather they had formula than nothing or at least be held and give them a pacifier.

Namaste, Tara
mama to Doodle (6), Butterfly (2 tomorrow!), and Rythm (due athome 1/06)