What is a Birth Plan?

Birth is a natural process that women have been successfully experiencing centuries. A birth plan can be compared to an outline of how you would like things to go. The plan itself is not an inflexible document of how events will proceed. The process of a birth plan is this: gather the information, consider your options, and write a plan.

Gather the Information
This can be done by taking a childbirth class, talking to friends and relatives, reading books, and asking your provider. Cast the net wide. Spend a few minutes looking at ALL options even if you think you are not likely to pursue them. You may need to back up and look at the big picture. Maybe you’ve been quite comfortable with the gynecologist you’ve seen for years, but now that you are expecting your needs are different. Perhaps you’d like to give birth at a particular hospital, but your provider doesn’t go there. Much of what is on a birth plan, however, does not require taking such a big picture look or major decisions. Such things include what you would like your partner to do, for example, cutting the cord or his/her presence at a cesarean birth. Another example is how you would like the birth atmosphere to be, such as dim lights, quiet music, and for caregivers to knock before entering your room.

Consider Your Options
Once you have compiled your list of potential options, cross off the options that you know you are not interested in or ones that you don’t really care about. Perhaps your partner has no interest in cutting the cord, or perhaps you’re not interested in the hospital’s water birth facilities. Next, find out what the norms are for your provider and your chosen birth hospital. Some internet based birth plan templates have drop down menus that offer choices rarely seen anymore-enemas and pubic shaving, for example. Don’t take up space on your birth plan detailing something you don’t want that isn’t done anymore anyway. It is equally important to tour the hospital where you plan to deliver. If you’d like to avoid an epidural, you may want to think twice about delivering at a hospital that has a 98 percent epidural rate.

Write Your Plan
Generally, the finished product will read, “I would prefer….” and “I would like to avoid…”. It is also very wise to include how you would like things to be handled if the unexpected occurs: “In the event of a c section, I would like….”. After the plan is written, share it with your provider. Since you have ideally already discussed some of the details with him/her, giving a copy of your birth plan will be for review and for inclusion in your chart in case another provider is on call. Bring one to the hospital for the nurses to include in your chart. While in the throes of labor is when you least want to be clarifying the details of your birth plan.

I recommend you keep these things in mind while researching and writing you birth plan.

• LABOR PREFERENCES
• MONITORING PREFERENCES
• LABOR AUGMENTATION/INDUCTION
• ANESTHESIA/PAIN MEDICATION
• CESAREAN PREFERENCES
• EPISIOTOMY PREFERENCES
• DELIVERY PREFERENCES
• IMMEDIATELY AFTER DELIVERY
• POSTPARTUM
• BREASTFEEDING
• CIRCUMCISION PREFERENCES
• PHOTO/VIDEO PREFERENCES
• OTHER MISCELLANEOUS REQUESTS

You can view interactive birth plans at:
http://www.childbirth.org/interactive/ibirthplan.html