I believe that it's important to have a birth plan yet understand that anything can happen and be open to the possible unexpected, changes & event circumstances.
However, envisioning and writing down your desired labor and delivery experience is key to be able to communicate those goals to the team around you, so they can better assist you, without even asking or forcing other routes, if you have strong wishes. It pretty much is a way of minimizing missed communication.
With both babies, I chose an out-of-hospital birth because that's where I feel most comfortable and what automatically gives me a majority of my envisioned birth: less staff in and out (just 2: a midwife throughout and a nurse too during delivery), a secured big warm tub, 100% intermittent monitoring with complete out-of-bed freedom of movement, a SPA-like spotless setting, extreme quietness, no meds, and less to no interventions.
BUT HERE ARE ALL THE THINGS TO CONSIDER + DISCUSS WITH YOUR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS WHEN CREATING A BIRTH PLAN & VISION
1. Who’s beside you
2. Being out of bed
3. Tub option
4. Atmosphere
5. Photos or videos
6. Oxytocin - If at hospital only
7. Epidural and medication - If at hospital only
8. Alternatives to pain meds
9. Monitoring
10. IVs
11. Episiotomies - If at hospital only
12. Interventions like vacuum extraction or forceps to assist in the birth of your child - If at hospital only
13. Delayed cord cut
14. If dad cuts the cord
15. Cord blood banking
16. Immediate skin to skin time & nursing
17. Washing or not washing the newborn
18. Dad skin to skin time
19. Postponing weighing the baby
20. If administering eye drops or not
21. Shots or not
22. Special requests around the placenta
Did you write your birth plan or will you? Did your birth go as you thought? Or what happened differently than desired? Are you doing anything different your second time around?
And with the pandemic a lot of you are messaging me saying you are now considering an out-of-hospital birth as well: is that you too? Are you now considering it?
Need to prepare for birth and learn ALL your labor options for an educated & empowered experience while learning how to prep your body & mind for labor and much more? Take my self-paced Empowered Birth Prep Course! Ill walk tou through every single option with a master plan, vídeo lessons, printable resources and lists and much more!