Birth Plan?

I just wanted to add that a birth plan is not about being in control - a birth plan is meant for you to weigh your pros and cons, find out your options beforehand and to put the choices you make in order of priority and to enable you to have a positive birth. It means less surprises in the hospital. The birth plan helps to communicate this with all the staff on duty - this is why in certain hospitals, they’ll ask you for it, because they’ll reduce the number of questions asked. And they’ll only attend to your requests if it’s out of the birth plan. Also, nurses and midwives change shift all the time and their methods and values are all different. The birth plan serves as a communication tool so that their care for you stays consistent (e.g. this mama is aiming for a birth with the least interventions so we’ll help her - don’t sell the epidural repeatedly and don’t disturb her with the need for pitocin. Give her her space to birth and to listen to her instincts) I would like to suggest that when you don’t think through the options or look at hospital protocols beforehand, you would not have the time, space, nor frame of mind while in labour to consider if the options offered to you are within your level of comfort and towards what you deem as a positive birth. This is why many women go through birth trauma. Some aren’t even aware of it until fears arise in the following births of their children and they aren’t aware of it. Many women are able to tell you how their births went even on their deathbeds so putting in a bit of elbow grease to create a birth plan, is in my opinion, well worth it.

Hi dear, if you trust your gynae, then there’s no need for a birth plan:) from experience, many people “throw out” their birth plans when in the delivery suite. The common things in the birth plan are the type of birth, the kind of pain relief, cord clamping, what to do with the placenta. For type of birth, some people specify water birth, some say they want natural (refuse C-section/artificial rupture of membrane). For this, I strongly recommend that you listen to what your doctor advises you on that day. Your gynae will know what is safest. For pain relief, it depends on your threshold and preference (laughing gas/pethidine injection/epidural). Pushing baby out is tiring, so you need all the strength you can muster. If you can’t bear the pain, just take the epidural so you save some energy. If you’re doing well with laughing gas alone, then that’s fine too. For cord clamping/cutting, they may offer to let your husband cut the cord. For the placenta, you can decide whether to keep it or throw it. A small group of mummies request to eat a piece of it. I didn’t have a printed birth plan, but I just knew what pain relief I wanted, and trusted my gynae and the midwives with the rest of the decisions:) So I managed to just focus on getting my babies out. All the best!