Birth Plan – what should be in there?
What can a birth plan include?
It’s best if your birth plan is short and simple and highlights what is most important to you. If you can, go through your birth plan with an experienced doula or with your midwife or doctor so they can help you understand the options available to you depending on where you are giving birth.
Some things you might want to include in your birth plan are:
• Information about you and any key points that your midwives and doctors need to know (e.g. my partner or I have a disability, I need an interpreter, I have special religious or cultural needs) and where you are planning to give birth (e.g. in the obstetric unit of a hospital, in the midwifery unit, in a birthing centre, at home)
• Information on how you’re feeling about pregnancy and birth (are you feeling stressed out or nervous, or perhaps you are very excited)
• An introduction to your birth team - who is with you and what their roles are
• Information on the type of birth you would like and the coping measures you would like to use
• Your preferences for augmentation (speeding up labour)
• Information on how you’d like to move around what equipment you’d like to try during labour and birth
• Information on the type of monitoring you’d like to use
• Your preferences for the various stages of labour and birth: second (pushing), third (birth of the placenta) and fourth (golden hour)
stages
• Anything you particularly want
• Anything you particularly DO NOT want
• Add a further section that covers the chance of a caesarean section and identifies what is most important to you then
Keep your birth plan short, simple and easy to read. There are many templates of birth plans available online, including visual ones with icons of your preferences.
You can also make a short list for your support people (your doula and partner) that are important to you but that you don’t need to communicate to midwives and doctors, like:
• Don’t wear perfume or strong-smelling clothes (think strong fabric softener or cigarettes - bring a change of clothes if you need to because birthing women and babies are very sensitive to all smells)
• Make sure your phones are on silent
• Offer me water with a bendy straw regularly; remind me to go to the bathroom every hour or so
• Keep my favourite essential oil handy in a diffuser or roll-on and use it regularly
• Don’t take any photos or videos of the birth unless we have agreed on this before
• Don’t take photos of the baby until I am ready and don’t make any announcements on social media until I say so, or at least two hours after the birth
Think carefully about making announcements about baby’s arrival - you don’t want your parents to find out about the birth from social media. Decide in advance who you will call, who you will text, and who will make the first social media post. Tell your loved ones about this and ask them to respect your wishes. And above all – wait at least an hour or two to let people know baby has arrived – these are your precious first hours with your baby that you should savour.