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You can find yourself being pretty busy during your pregnancy. Doctors’ appointments, visits from family and friends, maybe small parties for announcements and gender reveals. In amongst it all make sure you find time to look after yourself and make yourself a birth plan.
Every pregnancy and every parent is different and your birth plan is your chance to have some control of what you want. Nothing is truly predictable and you may have to be a little flexible but it is always good to have some idea of how you would like your birth to go.
Here are a few ideas of what to include in your plan.
Medical Info
Even though your hospital will have everything recorded, if you choose to have a home birth or are trying for a more drug-free birth, it is good to have some medical info on hand.
Should you need to have some pain relief, have it noted what you can and cannot take or even if it is just a personal preference for the day put it in the plan. You, your birth partner, midwife and even your doctor will find it useful to have quick access to allergies, preferences and plans.
Also, to be included is what you are doing with the afterbirth. Have it noted somewhere if you want it to be disposed of, if you want to keep it, donate it or if you have arranged to have it privately stored. If you have requested private storage, make sure you make note of the process, so you don’t forget anything.
People
Important people need to be noted down. Doctors name, midwife and or doulas name, your birth partner/s and probably someone as an emergency contact should something go wrong.
When it comes to those you want in and out of the room, medical professionals will need to be on hand but for friends and family, you can have pretty much complete control over who is where and when.
Ensure you have plans for during labour and post-birth. During your labour, if you want a parent and your partner to take turns being with you or you only want one person through it all, state that. Once the baby is born, if you want to have some alone time for an hour or two, have it in the plan.
This is also a great place to have some backup contacts too. That way if one person is missing on the day, you have someone to step in at the last minute.
Ensure your birth partner knows who is on this list too so that they can advocate for you while you are busy.
Environment
Giving birth can be a pretty stressful experience for everyone but especially for you. It’s a lot of emotions all at once so try your best to create an environment you are happy with. If you want the room darker, ask if you can dim the lights or cover the window. If you have music make sure you have a little speaker and headphones in your hospital bag and put this in the plan.
Further to this if you would rather have moments alone to just progress with your labour without lots of people sticking their heads in or feeding you info perhaps have it in your plan that unless something is wrong or very important to communicate with your partner. Or the opposite, if you want to know everything and anything all the time let the doctors and nurses know.
Make it Your Own
You can create your plan from scratch or use a template but make this document your own. As much or as little detail can go into this as you like, but have all your thoughts, important people and backup plans right at your fingertips.
