The Importance of a Birth Plan
The plan itself isn’t what is important
The education behind it IS.
Wait Jelina what do you mean?
When you’re creating your birth plan, what are you doing? You’re going through YOUR OPTIONS that your birthing place or medical team offers. Home births and birth center births are typically aligned with your intention (because you researched the benefits and risks of your birthing place and chose an out of hospital birth for a reason). So creating birth plans for out of hospital births are typically rare because you’re constantly discussing what you want with your midwives. So they already know and support what you want when going into your birth.
For hospital births though? You don’t have that continuity of care you typically receive in out of hospital births. If you’re part of a large practice, you have no clue who is going to attend your birth. Not the nurses, not the doctors, and even then, if you’re there during shift changes, your nurses and doctors can change multiple times over the course of your labor and birth experience.
Which is why creating a birth plan and UNDERSTANDING your options in a hospital setting is SO. DAMN. IMPORTANT.
the main parts of a birth plan
Birthing info: your name, your partner’s name (if applicable), where you’re birthing, and anyone else who will be in the room (i.e. doula, birth photographer, etc).
Laboring wants: how do you want the environment, what kind of monitoring do you want (continuous, wireless, intermittent), cervical exams, laboring down, etc.
Pushing wants: what positions do you want to push in, coached pushing, perineal massage, partner (if applicable) catch, etc.
Newborn needs: what vaccinations you want your baby to get (if any), delayed cord clamping/cord blood banking, do you plan to breastfeed, formula feed, pump only, etc.
Your birth plan should only include things you WANT, not necessarily things you don’t want (unless they’re non-negotiable, like for religious reasons). It’s best to keep your birth plan to ONE PAGE, front only. Make it simple to read and make things that are important to you in bold that way they catch your care providers easier.
The birth preference below is one that is the most common that my birth client’s use. Feel free to copy it, or adjust it to your specific needs! But notice the layout, it’s minimal, things are bolded that are important, and it’s easy to read and navigate.
REMEMBER: Birthing in a hospital is about creating a TEAM environment 💕
